The First Change
by Charlotte Eraviel
Summary: A girl who sacrificed everything to save the world. A girl who was exiled by the same world. If these two souls meet, will they...? - Prequel of the Change series.
1. Crisis

**Hello guys! Eraviel here!**

**I bring you a new fanfiction!**

**I pondered for a long time about your reviews in the final chapter of Change The World, and I actually liked one suggestion from you guys.**

**And the creation of this fanfic is thanks to Draen's suggestion! This story will tell how Kurome's mission started. The veeeeeeery beginning, if I may say. I didn't take one part of his suggestion because it doesn't fit the story's setting so yeah, there's that.**

**Long story short, this is a post-conquest story. And being that, you can expect several casualties. *Insert Urizen: I will show you your worst nightmares!***

**This chapter took a veeeeeeeeeeery long time to finish. You know me, I'm a slow writer. Probably the first time I wrote a lengthy chapter 1, but who cares, heh.**

**By the way, I'm going to get this out of the way. Since Conquest has been left for dead as there is no concrete continuation of it from the canon story, I assumed several, if not a lot of stuff here. Though I will try to explain which is which without giving spoilers.**

**So, yeah, onto the story now, enjoy!**

* * *

_Dark…_

_It was so dark. I couldn't see a thing. In this void, everywhere I turned my eyes to, I could see nothing._

_Nothing at all._

_How long had I been in this place? I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember at all._

_But, I could never, ever forget what **they** did to me._

"…"

_My body floated in this void. I wasn't even sure if I was floating as I couldn't see my body as well, so I just assumed that I did. I had no energy to move my limbs; whatever I would do was going to be futile anyway. I didn't even know if I had limbs in the first place._

_This place would be my resting place._

"…_No."_

_My inner mind told me that. I was surprised that I could still hear myself. I was still hoping that one day, I would be able to get out of this place…_

_Hope…? No, that wasn't quite right. I no longer had any hope. What was keeping me to be myself in this place was nothing as stupid as hope._

_Revenge._

_I will have it. And I would stop at nothing until I get my vengeance to those who mistreated me. Those who pushed me, and to those who betrayed me._

_I…_

_Will…_

_Come back…_

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune – Basilicom.

Inside a certain room in the Basilicom, there was a young girl sitting behind a desk. On her right hand was a pen, writing something on the documents in front of her, while her left hand was the one taking the papers after she had finished writing on it. There was already a mountain of papers beside her and it looked like she wasn't going to be done with it any sooner.

After a while of working, she heard a knock on the door. She stopped and turned to the door to see who was going to enter the room.

"Nepgear…?"

The girl named Nepgear, who was the one working inside the room, spoke as she recognized the voice from the other side of the door. "Come in."

Shortly after that, the door opened. A small girl sitting on a floating tome entered the room. She was wearing a fit light purple dress with a blue and white tie and cuffs, paired with a white hat on her head. She was also wearing white long socks and shoes. On her back was a pair of blue and purple wings that made her look like a fairy of sorts.

"Oh, Histoire…" Nepgear said as she saw Histoire enter the room, but then she turned back to whatever she was doing.

Histoire frowned. Anyone would know that Nepgear wasn't in good condition by just glancing at her. After all, she had the world on her shoulders.

Why was that so?

She was the only CPU left in the world.

**~o~O~o~**

_Simple? No, it wasn't simple._

_Years ago, they faced the biggest threat that Gamindustri could ever have._

_Arfoire. The Deity of Sin._

_The world was thrown into chaos when she… no, even before she rose up. Her subordinates and followers initially distorted the peace of the living. Back when the CPUs weren't still sure of Arfoire's existence, a wasteland appeared in the middle of the four nations._

_It was called the Gamindustri Graveyard._

_Knowing that the place was filled with threat, and suspecting where the Deity of Sin was hiding, Histoire suggested that the CPUs along with Nepgear should inspect the area._

_But, of course, exploring the unknown was tantamount to jumping on fire._

_Yet, they had to. They had to end the threats to Gamindustri. If they wouldn't do it, who would?_

_That's why it was a given to them to go to the wasteland, despite the risks._

"…"

_The risks weren't calculated._

_The CPUs encountered an enemy, so close to their own in terms of strength. The enemy was named CFW Magic, one of the Four Felons of the Deity of Sin, or so they said. Whatever or whoever she was, the CPUs weren't aware at that time, and they were defeated by her single-handedly._

_The CPUs weren't killed, but they were imprisoned, for three years._

_With their disappearance, things went from bad to worse in Gamindustri. With their remaining light of hope, Histoire created a small Sharicite, a crystallized form of Share Energy. Upon its creation, she sent an adventurer named IF and her friend, Compa, to the graveyard to save the CPUs._

_But of course, things didn't go too well for them either._

_They were hindered by another member of the Four Felons, CFW Judge. With him around, they failed to save the CPUs, except for one._

_Nepgear._

_She was the only one saved. And before things could go worse than they could imagine, IF and Compa retreated with an unconscious Nepgear after repelling CFW Judge and returned back to the surface._

_But of course, that didn't end there._

_As Nepgear regained her consciousness, she met with Histoire, IF, and Compa. She learned the current situation of Gamindustri after being absent for three years. Of course, it was nothing but the worst._

"…"

_She knew what had to be done. She had to save her sister and the other CPUs, but before that, she had to rally as many allies as she could. Histoire suggested to borrow the power of the other CPU candidates like her, and the mascots of the respective nations, who were the ones acting as the nation's proxy CPUs._

_And of course, it wasn't easy for her, even with IF and Compa's help. Along their way, they crossed through different battles, heard different stories, be it good or bad. In the end, after solving each nation's problems, Nepgear managed to recruit the CPU candidates and gain the power of the mascots._

"…"

_Now that everything was ready, Nepgear and her friends headed back to Gamindustri Graveyard to save their sisters. Speeding up things a little bit, they were successful in rescuing their sisters after defeating CFW Judge. They also encountered CFW Magic, the one who defeated them three years ago, but she just let them go. The CPUs weren't in good shape anyway, so it worked out best for them._

_So, after that, they retreated back. The CPUs tried to regain their shares and eventually recovered their strengths, enough to fight back, albeit not being on the top of their game._

_With that said, they then set forth to find CFW Magic and defeat her to prevent the Deity of Sin's revival. On their way to Gamindustri Graveyard, they encountered Magic. Of course, a battle was what the CPUs wanted, and they defeated Magic._

_Only to find out that the Deity of Sin's revival was done. With the death of the four felons, as Magic said, their lives returned to her._

_The ground shook violently, and eerie screams surrounded the skies. They knew where it came from._

_Gamindustri Graveyard._

_Knowingly that they didn't expect this outcome, they returned to Planeptune to devise a plan on how to defeat the Deity of Sin. But no, nothing came to their minds._

_Except for Nepgear._

_During her travels when they were still trying to save the CPUs, they heard a lot of rumors and stories. One of them was a rumor about a cursed sword. That sword was said to have the power to defeat the Deity of Sin, but yes, being a rumor, they had no idea where that sword could be found._

_But, by the Gods of Convenience, an old man told them the whereabouts of the sword. It was located in the depths of LAN Castle. Be it that they were suspicious about the old man, they had no time to spare with their current situation. So they just headed to where the cursed sword was kept._

_As they arrived at their destination, all they found was a rusty old sword. Doubting that this was the thing they were searching for, they felt completely disappointed._

_But of course, Nepgear didn't give up._

_She suggested that maybe if they clean and polish the sword, it'll turn into something that can be used as a weapon. And so that was what they did; it was better than nothing._

_They returned to Planeptune to clean the sword up. As Nepgear finished polishing it, Histoire called via Nepgear's PDA. Nepgear answered the call, only to be surprised with Histoire's panicking voice. Histoire asked if everyone was alright if they used the sword, and Nepgear answered the way Histoire wanted her to. Nepgear asked why Histoire was panicking, but her question wasn't answered as Histoire ordered them to return to the Basilicom._

_As soon as possible._

_They then returned to the Basilicom, only to be greeted by the Oracle's serious faces. Nepgear asked why they were making such expressions. The Oracles explained that the sword can actually slay the Deity of Sin, but only if they choose to actually use it. The CPUs didn't really quite get what the Oracles were trying to say, but when Histoire revealed what the sword actually was, the horror of knowing something that they shouldn't have known crept into their hearts._

"_As it is now, it has no power. But when certain conditions were fulfilled, that can change."_

"…" _The CPUs demanded a clear answer._

"_The sword must kill a lineage of CPUs. Every life it takes; its powers will increase."_

"…"

_The CPUs didn't accept that solution. Of course, resorting to killing all CPUs until there was only one left? That was something they could never, ever do._

"…**_But if we do… we can defeat the Deity of Sin… We can save Gamindustri…"_**

**~o~O~o~**

How did Nepgear end up being the only CPU left in the world again?

Simple, yet cruel.

They, or she, used 'the sword'. It took the lives of the other CPUs; Noire and Uni, the CPU and CPU candidate of Lastation, respectively. Blanc, Rom and Ram, the CPU and CPU candidates of Lowee, respectively. Vert, the only CPU of Leanbox.

And lastly, her sister, Neptune. The previous CPU of Planeptune, her nation.

With her being the only CPU left in Gamindustri, she had the whole world on her shoulders. She had the highest position in the world.

But she wasn't happy.

Of course, no one would be. Sacrificing her friends and her sister to defeat a threat that could end the world? It didn't sit right with her.

But what choice did she have? The fate of the world, or her friends' lives?

Had she chose her friends' lives instead of using the sword, they would be alive, although temporarily, since the world would be destroyed by the Deity of Sin as they had no other means of defeating her.

If there was another way, then maybe…

"…!"

Nepgear's breathing stopped for a moment, which made her clench her chest in pain.

"Nepgear?!" Histoire rushed to her aid.

Nepgear tried to catch her breathing. That thought was a complete taboo for her. If there was indeed another way, then she should've done that ages ago. And for her to think that way after all those sacrifices, wouldn't it mean that her friends' deaths were for naught?

"I'm alright…" Nepgear took a few good breaths before her breathing returned to normal. Histoire frowned upon seeing Nepgear's state. She knew that Nepgear was lying; she was never alright. Histoire could see that from Nepgear's eyes.

Nepgear was carrying a very heavy burden on her shoulders, and she was going to carry that until the end of her time.

"Nepgear, you should take a break." Histoire suggested. "I will not take no for an answer; you weren't doing well in the past few years. The people are growing anxious about you."

Nepgear opened her mouth and attempted to say something, but Histoire didn't give her a chance. "Get some rest, okay? Your health isn't really doing too good. It most of the time clouds your judgment. You even ignore my suggestions sometimes." Histoire then gave her a weak smile. "I will take care of your work today. Clear your mind off your worries."

Nepgear really didn't know how to respond to that. If it was that easy, then she would've done that ages ago.

"…"

Without saying anything back, Nepgear stood up from her seat and went out of the room. The memory of _that time_ was still fresh to her, despite ten years had already passed. No one would be able to forget or even outgrow that experience.

At least, not her.

After a short while, she got out of the Basilicom. The people waved at her as a sign of greeting as they saw her, in which Nepgear replied back with a wave and smile as well. She had to put a façade whenever she was in public, else there would be a great distrust and dissatisfaction from her people. Nobody would worship a weak and pathetic goddess, after all.

All the more after hearing what Histoire just said earlier, about the people being anxious and that.

She passed by the guild. Although taking a quest would definitely be a good change of pace, her mind wasn't really into the idea.

"…"

She sighed in disappointment. She decided to make some rounds around the city, or no, the whole Gamindustri. Because Planeptune wasn't the only one she was ruling now, she had the duty of keeping the other three nations' peace.

Not just for the people's sake, but also _their_s. Her fallen friends.

Nepgear unconsciously lowered her head as she walked around. Good thing that the road she was in was less populated, else she'd be in for a great misunderstanding.

Why so?

"…"

Her tears were falling. Remembering her friends' faces was eating from the inside of her heart. She was constantly apologizing to them mentally, even though it wouldn't bring them back.

'_I'm sorry…!'_

She never stopped apologizing. Not even once. There wasn't a day that she didn't apologize. Even in her sleep, she was doing that. Because if you'd really look close at her, you would notice that Nepgear never had a proper sleep.

But of course, that wasn't the only reason why she never had a good night's sleep. Being the sole ruler of the whole world, not everyone was fond of the idea. People rebelling against her rule wasn't really new to her. Be it a rational revolution, or just a plain coup d'état, it didn't really make a difference to her. Every time that happened, she would do everything in her power to keep the peace entrusted to her by her friends.

Though her definition of peace remained questionable. To other people, at least. Why so? That will be saved for later.

After all, ruling the whole world all by herself was never an easy task. She herself knew that. Surely, there were people that were cheering for her, but there were also people that didn't. You could never win everyone's hearts. The ratio of the two sides was never known by Nepgear, though. That's why she did what was the _best for the world_.

"…Urgh…"

Before her heart could turn into a mess, she ran at full speed and flew up to the skies after transforming, not bothering if there were people who saw her. Well, not like she was hiding her identity since her very existence was known to the whole world already.

'_I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…!'_

As her self-loathing continued, her comms suddenly rang up, which made her flight stop in an instant. She instinctively wiped her tears as she saw who the caller was.

"This is Nepgear." Nepgear said as she accepted the call.

"_Good, you picked up fast. We have trouble here in Lastation. We need your help." _A female voice could be heard from the other side of the call.

Nepgear's eyes widened. There were three reasons why she did that. One reason was because of the news. Two, being her realizing that the direction she was flying to was towards Lastation. And three, the person who was calling.

"…You're in luck. I'm on my way to Lastation." Nepgear replied. "Where are you now?"

"_I'm on a run. The New Order seized the Basilicom already." _The person on the call answered. There was a moment of pause before she continued. _"I can't meet you right now, but there I have a contact who can help you, and you can trust her. You'll meet her on the way, just don't keep yourself hidden too much."_

"How do I find her…?"

There was a short pause before the person on the other side of the call replied. _"…Don't worry, she'll find you."_

"…" Nepgear couldn't believe it. "…How did this even happen?"

If you're wondering about The New Order, it was the group that mainly opposed Nepgear. A huge organization with only one reason for existing: liberating the whole world from Nepgear's rule. That means removing Nepgear from existence.

"_It was an inside job. There was a spy who gained a lot of _trusts_ managed to get inside our database and leaked our intels. They outsmarted us."_

That wasn't really a piece of pleasant news to Nepgear, because there was something fishy going on in this situation. "Do you know who it is?"

"No_, she was using an alias and her tracks were completely erased. Not a single information of her was left."_

Nepgear's mood turned completely sour. She kept on asking why couldn't people just be happy and content with the small peace present in the world. Why would people continue to wage war? Create a conflict? Nepgear would never know the reason why.

"…Is that so…" Nepgear answered uninterestingly. She really could smell something fishy.

"_Yes, now, just listen to my words. Ignore the months and days." _The person on the other phone said. Nepgear was getting tired of the random nonsense the other person was saying. _"And _one_ last thing."_

Nepgear sighed. "…What is it?"

"_Do you remember the fifteenth day of the fifth month?"_

Nepgear had question marks on her head. "…I know you hate me to a certain extent, but did you really have to remind me…? That's the date where you challenged me to a debate and pathetically lost."

That really got into Nepgear's nerves. She didn't have any idea why in the hell the person she was talking to was rambling nonsense during a crisis. Or why was she reminding Nepgear of those unpleasant days.

But of course, Nepgear was ignored as the person on the other side of the call just continued. _"How about the first day of the sixth month?"_

Nepgear's eyebrow twitched. "…Same crap, different day."

"_Now, second day of the eighth month."_

Okay, that blew Nepgear's fuse. "…" Without saying anything back, Nepgear slammed the end call button in front of her virtual window.

"…You didn't have to remind me of my mistakes… I'm doing my best here, you know…!"

Nepgear increased her flight speed. The words of the person who just called her were lingering in her mind. That complete nonsense.

"…"

She was about to enter Lastation's airspace when she suddenly felt a cold chill down her spine which made her stop. She didn't know why, but her danger sensors were ringing.

'…What is this feeling…?'

Nepgear wasn't really visiting Lastation so much for her to know that something was wrong here, but even so, her instincts were something she could trust. She looked back through her call earlier with _her_, but couldn't seem to remember something else aside from what they just talked earlier.

"…"

The things that got stuck in Nepgear's mind were the dates _she_ reminded her. Being reminded of one's mistakes was never a great feeling. Everyone knew that feeling. But before she could think deeper about that, she saw a flashing light down below her. It looked like the sunlight was being directed to her using a mirror.

Curious as to what it was, Nepgear lowered her altitude and headed for that signal. As she got down, she saw a tall girl with short, crimson hair, paired with a headband. Her outfit consisted of something that no normal civilian would wear, and from the looks of it, it was for making one's movement not too constricted. She also had a case on her back; whatever the contents of it were unknown to Nepgear.

"I'm glad I got your attention." The crimson-haired girl said as she sighed in relief.

Nepgear could just gape at the person who stood in front of her. She wasn't some she had expected to meet in this place, let alone call her attention as if her arrival was expected.

Though now that she had thought about it, the person who called earlier did mention that she would be meeting someone along her way to Lastation. And to be called intentionally meant that…

"…So you're the contact Kei sent, Ms. Falcom." Nepgear said.

Yes, Falcom. She was the one who caught Nepgear's attention. The two of them had a fair share of adventures in the past, so they weren't really strangers.

But of course, that was in the past. Things had changed over the years.

"Do you know the severity of the situation?" Falcom asked.

Nepgear had a question mark on her head. She didn't understand why Falcom would ask that question. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Lastation's Basilicom is compromised, right?"

Falcom eyed Nepgear for a moment before sighing in disappointment. "…I guess you don't."

Nepgear popped a nerve after hearing that answer. "What did I not get?"

"You'll see it yourself later." Falcom turned around and walked away. "Undo your HDD. You're gonna attract unnecessary attention with that."

Nepgear raised an eyebrow in confusion but nonetheless complied with Falcom's request. The two of them then walked towards the city, and each step they took, the chill that was running down Nepgear's spine was getting stronger. She knew that something was indeed going on in Lastation.

"This way." Falcom then immediately hurried to an alleyway before they could be seen by the crowd. Nepgear followed Falcom's lead. "Good, we weren't spotted."

"Why are we hiding?" Nepgear asked.

Falcom peeked at the corner of the wall for a moment before turning back to Nepgear. "See for yourself."

Nepgear raised an eyebrow once more but didn't question Falcom's actions further and just did what she was told. She then peeked at the corner of the wall. At first, she didn't see something unusual, as what she saw was just people walking down the sidewalks while staring at their smartphones.

But then when she inspected very carefully, she noticed something weird. At plain sight, it looked like the people were just messing with their phones, but Nepgear knew that it wasn't the case. From her perspective, the way people interact which each other, it looked like they were looking for something. And those people with smartphones were mostly interacting with shady people in hoods.

As she finally realized that, she remembered the call she had earlier.

"Fifteenth day of the fifth month … First day of the sixth month… Second day of the eighth month …"

Again, those dates were the ones where she was at the peak of her misery or something like that. It wasn't really a good experience, but she was giving it her all for those events to not happen again. Being humiliated in front of many people didn't really make a good experience, after all.

But then, Nepgear remembered another thing.

"**_Yes, now, just listen to my words. Ignore the months and days."_**

Those words lingered in Nepgear's mind for a while, making Falcom confused.

"Nepgear, what's-" Falcom tried to approached Nepgear, but she stopped halfway.

Before Falcom could finish her sentence, Nepgear summoned her weapon and pointed it directly at Falcom's neck. Falcom sweatdropped as soon as she felt the blade almost touching her throat as if she already felt that it was already slit.

"…You can scram now before I change my mind." Nepgear glared at Falcom. "Don't ever think of fighting me. I do not want to have unnecessary deaths." Another blade then appeared in Nepgear's left hand. It was a blade that glowed in purple, with an aura of malice oozing on both edges.

Falcom knew that Nepgear was serious. Nepgear would've beheaded her in an instant from whatever thoughts Nepgear just had, but chose not to.

"…"

Falcom stepped back a little, but Nepgear didn't chase her and just stood her ground. After a few steps backward, Falcom ran away, leaving Nepgear alone.

After a few good distance, Falcom stopped on a nearby tree. She sighed in relief as she leaned on the said tree. The look Nepgear had in her face and how she glared made Falcom shiver.

But of course, it wasn't new to Falcom. She knew what had transpired several years ago when the world was facing the Deity of Sin. Falcom didn't have the right to complain about what Nepgear did, not when it was a unanimous decision from the CPUs, but it was never A-Okay to her, even if it was an act of desperation.

"…You're still the same as ever, Nepgear." Falcom mumbled. Even though her life was threatened, she still understood why Nepgear did that.

"If you keep that up… it will be your downfall, I'm sure of it."

**~o~O~o~**

Nepgear lowered her weapon as Falcom disappeared from her sight. Truth to be told, she didn't want to do that, but she couldn't take any chances, now that she finally realized what was going in Lastation. This probably was what Histoire meant earlier. Ruling the four nations was never a walk in the park, after all.

"Haah…" She sighed.

Nepgear leaned on the wall. Her head hurt. Falcom was her friend, and she just threatened her. That was an act of betrayal, and she just did that to Falcom.

"…I can't just trust anyone, after all."

In the whole world, there was only one person that Nepgear fully trusted, and that was Histoire. Why so? That would be for later.

Nepgear picked herself up and went further inside the alley. Despite her being the CPU of Planeptune, she knew Lastation like the back of her hand. The same went for Lowee and Leanbox. She wasn't ruling the whole world for no reason, after all.

"…How should I proceed…?"

Nepgear tried to give it a deep thought. She knew that The New Order wasn't just her enemies this time, so she had to be careful. Being alone would be difficult, after all.

"..."

Nepgear peeked through the wall once more. To her surprise, the number of people meddling with their smartphones had increased, and for some reason, they were slowly converging towards her location, which gave her a bad feeling.

'Am I being spied on...?' Nepgear looked up to the skies for a brief moment before escaping from her position quietly.

She ran as fast as she could and arrived an alleyway that led to an exit, but before she could go out, she saw a lot of people, again, heading through her way.

'It seems like my movements are being tracked.' Nepgear thought. Not only that, but she also knew that she was being lured to somewhere. No wonder they weren't really going after her and just cutting her escape paths.

Nepgear sighed. 'Alright, then. Let's see where they will take me.' She said to herself.

Little did Nepgear know that she was in for a big surprise.

**~o~O~o~**

_Somewhere in Lastation._

_There were several people surrounding a silver-haired girl, who was tied down on a chair. From the looks of it, she was a hostage, and the people around her was expecting someone to come._

_"Ma'am, our people seem to like to be having a hard time bringing the CPU here."_

_The woman who seemed to be in-charged with the people surrounding the silver-haired girl, sighed as she moved away the phone from the silver-haired girl's ear. "She's not a CPU for nothing, of course. But don't worry, she'll be forced to come here."_

_The guy who just reported earlier just nodded and left._

_"...What would you gain from doing this...?" The silver-haired girl asked. It looked like she wasn't in good condition, as she had several bruises on her face and body._

_"Satisfaction." The woman said. "The era of the CPUs will come to an end, and we, humans, will be the rulers."_

_"You just want to rule the world..."_

_The woman swung her head in disagreement. "No, my dear. I have no intention of doing that." She said. "If anyone wants to do that, they're free to do so. That is, if the people would want it."_

_The silver-haired girl understood where the woman was coming from. But she also knew that that system wouldn't work. Definitely. Not even a CPU can handle ruling the world, how much more of a human?_

_And so, that made her chuckle._

_"What's so funny?"_

_The silver-haired girl's chuckles died down. "You."_

_The woman's blood boiled after hearing that and slapped the silver-haired girl. "Care to enlighten me?"_

_"...Heh..." The silver-haired girl just smirked at the woman. "I'm sure you already know the answer, that is if you're not as stupid as I think you are."_

_The woman's eyebrow twitched a little, before turning around and leaving the silver-haired girl alone. She just sighed in relief. After all, nobody wanted to get hurt for dumb reasons._

_'After all, the world isn't meant to be ruled by a single entity.'_

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune - Basilicom.

Inside a certain room, Histoire was meddling with the telephone. It seemed like she was trying to contact someone, but for some unknown reason, she was getting a 'cannot be reached' message. And of course, it wasn't normal for Histoire, because the number she was trying to contact was a telephone from Lastation's Basilicom. And for the line to be not established was definitely unusual.

"What's going on there, Kei…?"

Yes, the person Histoire was trying to call was named Kei. In case anyone didn't know, Kei was the Oracle of Lastation, and of course, the one overseeing Lastation. While Nepgear was indeed the CPU of all the nations in Gamindustri, that didn't mean she could handle everything. That was why Kei was in Lastation, and so Histoire was in Planeptune.

The other two nations, Lowee and Leanbox, also had Oracles.

Histoire then dialed a different number. After a few seconds, the call was picked up.

"Hello, Mina." Histoire greeted.

The person named Mina responded. _"Oh, Ms. Histoire. What can I do for you?"_

Histoire sighed mentally as she heard the tone of Mina's voice, but decided not to address that as she had better things to do. "I was trying to call Kei using her hotline, but for some reason, I couldn't reach it."

_"So it's the same case as you."_

Histoire somehow was confused by that. "What do you mean?"

Wondering who Mina is? Nishizawa Mina, the Oracle of Lowee. And yes, she was also overseeing the nation, just like Kei.

_"It seems like things are a little rowdy in Lastation. I just got a report that the borders were locked down."_

Histoire gasped as she heard that shocking revelation. Just from that alone made Histoire assume the worst thing possible.

"Is that so…? Thank you for informing me." Histoire said.

_"You're welcome." _The call then was ended.

Histoire then brought the handset back on the telephone and sighed once more. Things weren't looking good for Lastation.

"Just when I told Nepgear to take a break…" She rubbed her temples as she could feel great pain in it. "…And I don't want to deal with Chika right now…"

Not like she had a choice. And with that, she reluctantly opened her personal telephone and called Nepgear. Just a few moments after that, the call was picked up.

"Nepgear, I-"

_"You don't need to say a word. I'm already here in Lastation and the whole nation's turned against us." _Nepgear interrupted Histoire before she could finish what she wanted to say.

And of course, Histoire was surprised to hear that. "What?! Then I-"

_"Don't. It's too dangerous here. Some of the citizens already joined the rebel group. I don't know what happened to those who didn't join and I'm being lured to somewhere so I can't check upon them. The army seems like they got sniffed out from the inside because there's none of them in taking action despite Lastation being threatened." _Nepgear replied. Histoire couldn't be more nervous with the current situation. _"I'll try to figure something out. Warn Mina and Chika about the potential attacks on their nations. Alert our army to prepare in case of invasion."_

"Okay, I'll do that. But you-"

_"Enough talking. I need to go now."_ Nepgear then ended the call.

Histoire was frozen on the spot. She couldn't move a muscle, but she had to do so because the nation, or in actuality, the whole world was in danger.

"I… need to warn Chika and Mina…" Histoire then regained her mobility and immediately did Nepgear's orders.

"Nepgear… please be safe…"

**~o~O~o~**

Lastation – somewhere in the alleys.

Nepgear was still running from alley to alley, trying to lose her pursuers. But it as she already knew, the whole nation was after her. She couldn't rely on Lastation's army because if they were still available, they would've scattered in the cities. But not a single one of them was present despite the crisis Lastation was in. So, she assumed that the rebel group had already ratted them out.

'I've got to lose these people…' Nepgear thought to herself, but she was wondering how she'd do that. She had been running from them for almost an hour but still couldn't lose them. That just solidified her belief that she was being tracked.

As she was running, she spotted a hatch that was leading to the sewers few meters from her position. As if an idea popped in her mind, she threw a smoke bomb in front of her and it landed just beside the hatch.

'Ten seconds.' Nepgear said to herself.

She stomped her foot and dashed towards the hatch. As she got near it, she slid her foot and made an immediate stop.

'Five seconds.'

She then forcefully opened the hatch and quickly jumped down while throwing a flash bomb outside. Before the flash bomb exploded, Nepgear closed the hatch, avoiding the explosion. She was now hanging by the hatch's handle.

"Haah…" Nepgear sighed in relief. "Not an experience I'd want on my break."

The flashbang should've hidden the hatch's closing sound if Nepgear didn't mess up. Because Nepgear was hanging by the hatch's handle, that would've made a very loud sound when closed, which would definitely give away her position if it wasn't for the flashbang.

Nepgear let go of the handle and jumped down to the sewers. The first thing that got her attention was the foul smell of the place which made her cover her nose.

"Well, at least it won't kill me." She mumbled to herself.

She stood by her place for a few minutes to verify if she wasn't being tracked anymore. Because if she was, the people would've gone down the sewers already. But ten minutes had passed, nobody came down.

"Good. Seems like I lost them." Nepgear exhaled. "Bad news, I don't know my way here."

While she was also governing the nation, the sewers were the least she wanted to end up in, so she didn't know which way would lead to where.

"Nothing can be done about it."

She then started to walk. Carefully. The last thing she wanted was slipping down and getting herself covered with unbearable stuff. Just imagining it made Nepgear hurl a little.

"…"

She had been wandering in the sewers for a while now. Going back to the surface immediately would be a bad move, though she was opposed to the idea because of the smell. Yet, she bore with it anyway.

"…"

She just hoped that she would end up near the Basilicom upon her exit of the sewers.

**~o~O~o~**

Somewhere in Lastation.

In a certain room in an establishment, there were several people surrounding a silver-haired girl who was tied on a pole. They weren't doing something to the girl, just keeping an eye out for her. They had been doing that for several hours now.

After a while, someone busted the door of the room open. The guy who just entered was panicking and seemed to be out of breath.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, busting the door like that?" The woman who seemed to be the leader of the group asked as she definitely didn't like how the door was opened.

The panicking guy tried to catch his breathing before speaking. "Ma'am, we lost the CPU of Planeptune!"

Now that surprised the woman. "What?! How did that happen?"

"She suddenly disappeared after a smoke bomb and a flashbang exploded in the alleyways when we were trying to catch her."

The woman bit her lip. 'It seemed like the CPU has an accomplice here.'

Or so she thought.

"Change of plans, then." The woman said. "Get everything ready outside."

The panicking guy just nodded and left the room. The woman then turned back to the silver-haired girl. She then slowly approached her as she cracked her fingers. "Dear me, we're getting ahead of schedule."

"Wha-?!" The silver-haired girl was surprised as the woman went behind her. Before she knew what happened next, she lost consciousness as the woman hit her nape.

**"The revolution starts now."**

**~o~O~o~**

Lastation – Sewers.

It had been more than an hour since Nepgear step foot down the sewers. She wasn't happy with that, of course. Nobody would be.

Though yes, Nepgear had grown tired of being in this shithole.

"Time to go up."

Nepgear then looked for a ladder that would lead back to the surface. Fortunately, it didn't take her long to find one. She just hoped that she would end up near the Basilicom, or at the very least, at a place where there would be no people.

She didn't think twice and climbed the ladder up. As soon as she reached the hatch, she opened it slightly and took a peek outside. It relieved her that she didn't see any people outside, but she couldn't make sure where she was exactly.

'Let's get this over with.'

Nepgear fully opened the hatch and stepped out of the hole. She took a deep breath and then exhaled. The stench of the sewers surely did mess up her sense of smell, and she was glad that she finally got to breathe something that wasn't from the sewers.

Well, she knew what Lastation's environment was like so she couldn't say that it was a 'clean' one.

"…"

Nepgear found herself in another alley. She didn't know where exactly she was, so she moved carefully. Though she realized that she didn't need to do so because when she was about to reach the exit of the alleyway, she saw several people running towards one direction.

And of course, Nepgear was glad that it wasn't towards her direction.

"…?"

Nepgear hid and observed the masses. She couldn't quite see where they were going because she was leaning on a wall and the direction the people were going was something out of her sight.

She waited until there were no more people crossing her sight before taking a peek to the direction where the people had gone through. To her surprise, she saw the Basilicom from a distance, and a lot of people were gathering in front of it.

"…What is…?"

Nepgear focused her sight to the Basilicom. There seemed to be a huge stage there but she couldn't quite see the people on it. It was very large that it could be compared with an arena. She decided to take a closer look while keeping herself unnoticed.

"…Ah…?!"

Nepgear gasped as she finally got a clear view of the stage. While there was still a good few distances separating her and the stage, she got a good picture of what was going on.

"…Kei, what the hell happened…?"

Right. On the stage, she saw Kei, Jinguji Kei, the Oracle of Lastation. But it wasn't just as simple as her being on the stage. Kei was chained down from her neck and her wrists by a wooden shackle. Judging from that alone, Nepgear knew what was going to happen, as there were people beside Kei on the stage.

Kei was going to be executed.

'…Why the hell would you keep this from me, Kei…?'

As Nepgear was lost in her thoughts, the woman on the stage beside Kei spoke up.

"Today marks the day that the world will be liberated from the rules of the CPUs!"

Nobody from the audience reacted, probably because they were confused.

"…" Nepgear blended in the audience but she kept herself at the back.

Not long after that, someone from the crowd screamed a battle roar, which then the others followed suit. With that, Nepgear learned that some, if not all of Lastation's citizens defected to the rebel group. But how the group convinced the citizens was something Nepgear didn't know. She didn't really meddle with Lastation's affairs unless the situation called for it and just let Kei handle the job as a CPU's proxy.

And for this situation to happen, Nepgear deduced that the rebel group might've planned this for a very long time. Convincing the citizens to go against the CPU, or even just the proxy, would definitely need a very enticing compensation.

There was one fact that Nepgear could only guess that the rebel group used to convince the people. The tragedy from ten years ago.

"…"

The people knew what happened to their CPU. The world was threatened by ASIC, or specifically, Arfoire. When the threat was eliminated, only Nepgear showed up in front of the whole world. It wouldn't take a genius to know what happened to the other CPUs.

Thus, the people might've convinced themselves that Nepgear sacrificed the other CPUs.

Which was in fact what happened indeed.

The screams of the people grew louder which made Nepgear step back a little. This could be nothing but a trap to lure her out. They were doing that earlier, so Nepgear couldn't fathom why they wouldn't do it again.

"Starting from Lastation, we will free the country from the CPU's grasps… by executing the Oracle!" The woman on the stage beside Kei continued her speech.

The screams died down instantly. It seemed like this plan wasn't known to the audience, and from the looks of it, the woman on the stage expected that kind of reaction. And so, she prepared something to keep the audience on her side.

"After the oracle is gone, only Lastation's people will remain. The people will not be chained by anyone! Lastation will be free from the murderous Goddess!"

Nepgear knew it. That card would eventually be played out.

"…"

She just clenched her fists as the people roared again. That was indeed a well-played tactic to turn the people against her.

"And so, the execution begins now!" The woman then raised her sword up and the roars of the people grew louder.

Nepgear raised her head again and directed her attention back to the stage. Her eyes widened when she saw Kei looking towards her direction.

'Did she notice me…?' Nepgear asked herself. She didn't know because there were more than a hundred meters of distance between them, so she assumed that it was just a coincidence.

But that thought was immediately washed when she noticed that Kei was swinging her head slowly as if she was telling her not to do anything.

'What should I…?'

But of course, she wasn't given a moment to think, because of the current situation she was in.

"For freedom!" The woman on the stage screamed, with the audience doing afterward. She then turned to Kei. The woman was ready to detach Kei's head from her torso.

Nepgear discarded everything that was clouding her mind. "Goddess damn it!"

In an instant, her body glowed. She then she jumped up to the skies as she transformed to her HDD. In just a fraction of a second, she dropped down on the stage and parried the sword that was about to decapitate Kei. The audience didn't even see what happened as everything just happened in a mere second.

"…Nep…gear…?" Kei was surprised by Nepgear's sudden actions. "…Why did you…?"

Nepgear pushed the sword upward and then kicked the woman, but it was blocked by her legs and was just pushed back.

"You'd expect me to just watch you get beheaded?"

But of course, Kei didn't listen to what Nepgear said.

"This is a trap. Get out of here, NOW!" Kei raised her voice as she tried to push Nepgear away, but her attempts were futile because of the wooden shackles that restrained her.

"What are you-?"

Before Nepgear could finish her sentence, her heart stopped for a moment and froze on the spot. Her strength suddenly left her body, which made her fall down on her knees. She turned to the woman who she just kicked earlier, and she saw her smirking.

She was then released from her HDD form and returned back to her human form, but still, her body was gradually becoming heavier and her strength was disappearing from her.

"…W-what did… you just… do…?" Nepgear asked a question as her voice stuttered. Her breathing became heavier which gave her difficulties when speaking.

The woman just kept her smirk as she replied to Nepgear. "Look around you."

Nepgear slowly ran her eyes around her. Aside from the people in front of the stage, she also noticed something unusual on the stage.

"…What are… those…?"

What Nepgear was referring to was those pebble-like things at each corner of the stage. Those things were glowing in red and was resonating with each other.

And of course, her body was reacting to it. In a very negative way.

"Anti-crystals." Kei responded in a low voice. Nepgear immediately turned back to Kei as she was surprised that Kei knew what it was. "…Or so that woman said."

Nepgear turned back to the woman at the other side of the stage. "Anti… crystals…?"

"Yes! These are our weapons against you." The woman said as she walked closer to Nepgear. "Don't bother asking where this came from, because we don't know. And if we did, we wouldn't tell you either way."

As the woman got closer, she kicked Nepgear to the face.

"Guh…!" Nepgear fell down on the ground. She could barely move a muscle as even though she was already devoid of strength, the crystals were still draining her. "…Ngh…"

Nepgear tried to sit up, but she only managed to do it halfway. And as she did so, the woman was already behind her.

"Look at how powerless the CPU with just the presence of a rock!" Nepgear was then kicked from the back, which resulted to her sliding on the ground with her front. "How can we expect to be protected by something as pathetic as this one?!"

The audience was still silent, but then they roared afterward.

"Yeah! We don't need a weak goddess!"

"I won't be able to sleep with both eyes closed if we have a goddess like her!"

"Just leave us alone!"

The audience continued their rants toward Nepgear as she just stared at them in horror. The situation was already at its worst, and Nepgear had no means of remedying it.

Or did she?

"Since you gladly presented yourself to us early, the liberation of Gamindustri from the rule of the CPUs will now begin!"

The audience then cheered loudly with just one goal in mind: removing Nepgear from existence. Nepgear just stared at the woman who had her sword lifted up high with the intent of it decapitating her. She couldn't move a muscle at all; it seemed like the effect of the anti-crystals covered the whole stage which rendered Nepgear powerless.

'I can't die yet…!' Nepgear thought to herself as she gritted her teeth. 'I must live… for this life is no longer mine…!'

"Fare thee well, CPU of Planeptune."

Nepgear averted her eyes. She tried to move her arms in hopes of blocking the attack, but it was futile. Her body didn't respond to any of the actions she wanted to do.

'Sis…!'

After a few moments, she heard the sound of a thud. She thought that her head might've rolled on the ground already, but no, she could still hear her breathing.

"…"

Nepgear slowly opened her eyes. As she managed to do so, she saw someone in front of her.

"You're really a handful one."

Nepgear's eyes widened. It was Kei who was in front of her.

"K-Kei…?"

Nepgear's heart started to race. If Kei was in front of her, then there could only mean one thing.

Or so she thought.

"Hey, don't go killing me off yet." Kei said and narrowed her eyes as she stared at Nepgear.

Nepgear was confused. She ran her eyes around Kei to see if she suffered any wounds, but no, Nepgear didn't see anything at all. Scratch that, she saw a blade stuck on the wooden shackle just beside Kei's ear. It went past three-fourths of the wood, and if it managed to slice through, Kei's arm would've definitely be severed.

"…"

Even with that, Kei had to be careful. One wrong move and the sword would definitely slice through the wood and cut her arm off.

'I need to get this sword away.'

Yes, that was her plan. Kei then kicked the woman upward from the back without turning back. With the sword stuck on the wood, the woman had no choice but to let go of it as she dodged Kei's kick.

"Tch." The woman clicked her tongue as she lost her weapon.

Kei then used her brute strength to detach a portion of the wood that was sliced by the sword. She didn't have any problems in doing so, and her left arm was finally free. Though her wrist was still locked by the wood, it wouldn't be a problem for her.

Or so she hoped for.

Kei then picked the sword up with her left hand. "It's time for payback."

"Hoo, I don't see how you're going to win against me in that state of yours." The woman said as she crossed her arms. "Anyway, just put a great show for our audience. Don't disappoint them."

The crowd cheered, expecting a splendid fight from the people on the stage. Nepgear couldn't do anything but stare at the crowd and at Kei. She hated herself for being powerless at a time like this.

Well, if anything, the anti-crystals were completely unknown to her before.

'Is my option really just to watch as events unfold here…?' Nepgear questioned herself. Of course, she wanted to clear this mess up, but she couldn't even lift a finger. Not only the stones sucked her strength, but it seemed to also paralyze her. All she could do was run her eyes in circles.

Not that she didn't believe Kei, but she knew Kei had the disadvantage here.

"K-Kei…" Nepgear called, but Kei didn't respond.

Instead, Kei dashed towards the woman. Her speed was drastically decreased due to the shackles on her but she didn't let that hinder her. Just before she could close the gap…

"Oh, I forgot to tell you…" The woman spoke out of nowhere. Kei's eyes widened as she saw the woman took a fighting stance. "I'm reeeeally bad at using swords."

"Oh shi-"

In an instant, the woman dashed to Kei and counterattacked by delivering a forward thrust with her right fist. Kei didn't manage to react in time and just tried to block it with her sword, but since she was using her left hand, she didn't have enough strength to hold the attack off. Her sword was completely shattered and was hit on the abdomen.

"Guuuhhh…!" Kei grunted in pain as she slid backward with her feet. Surprisingly, she was surprised that she was still standing after that attack, but of course, it did great damage to her body as she coughed up blood afterward.

Nepgear witnessed that momentary event. She was sure of it, Kei had no chance of winning this fight.

"Kei…! Just-"

Before Nepgear could finish what she wanted to say, Kei already interrupted her. "Just shut the hell up, Nepgear."

'I may have said that, but how can I turn the tables…?' Kei thought to herself. She didn't notice it earlier, but now there were people near the anti-crystals. It seemed like they were guarding it in case Kei or someone would attempt to destroy it.

"You know; you don't have the luxury to space out."

"Wha-?!"

As Kei was lost in her thoughts, the woman was already in front of her, ready to deliver another punch. Kei managed to evade it, but barely, as she bent sideward, but her cheek was grazed by the punch.

'Damn it…!'

The woman didn't let up and chased Kei. "Come on, what's wrong? Where did that confidence go?"

"…"

Kei was just barely evading the attacks. She couldn't afford to block an attack as all she could use was her left hand. Using her legs would definitely make her lose balance and that would be the end of her.

But of course, the burden of the shackles was what put Kei in a losing streak.

"That's enough playing games." The woman then grabbed Kei from the wooden shackle on the right side.

"Shi-!"

Kei flailed as the woman grabbed her. She was then slammed to the ground with her back, destroying the wooden shackle in the process. But it didn't end there. The woman then kicked Kei on her abdomen and she flew to the other side of the stage, on Nepgear's left.

"Kei!" Nepgear's attention followed Kei's body. She didn't realize that she managed to swing her head as she was too preoccupied with Kei's condition.

But of course, there wasn't a moment for Nepgear to even try to be worried about Kei as the woman was already approaching her.

"Oh, you managed to move." She said as she cracked her fingers. "The power of the anti-crystals is weakening now."

As she said that, Nepgear realized that she indeed can move as she was able to move her fingers, but due to the fact that her strength was drained, she could only barely move a limb.

The woman then grabbed Nepgear by the neck and choked her as she lifted her up. Nepgear struggled but her attempts were futile because of what little effect the anti-crystals still had.

"You look so pathetic right now."

Nepgear gritted as she glared at the woman. Afterward, she was slammed down to the ground with her back.

"AGH-!" Nepgear grunted in pain as her back crashed onto the ground. But it didn't end there; the woman then kicked Nepgear on the gut, which sent her flying to the other end of the stage.

The woman then walked towards Nepgear and dragged her back to the center of the stage. Nepgear's strength was completely drained and she couldn't fight back.

"Now, it's time for your most awaited moment: The execution of a CPU!" The woman then tossed Nepgear down as the crowd roared.

The woman ignored the crowd and turned to Nepgear. "Sit up."

But Nepgear didn't respond, as if she lost the will to live already. The woman then pushed Nepgear up to her knees, but still, she didn't react from it.

"What a useless goddess." The woman said as she raised Nepgear's chin up. The eyes Nepgear had was of someone who just gave up on everything. "Your ruling days are over." She then let Nepgear go.

**~o~O~o~**

_Ah, what can I do?_

_Nothing. I could do nothing. I had no strength to spare. Even though I must live, in this situation, what could probably spare my life?_

_Let me rest._

_Please._

_Let this end already…_

**~o~O~o~**

"Farewell, ruler of Gamindustri."

The woman then equipped something on her knuckles. All of a sudden, it glowed, like it was in a thousand-degree Celsius temperature.

"I will try to make this painless for you."

The woman then bent her arm as she took a stance and store momentum. With her equipment, she was aiming for Nepgear's throat, and she planned on piercing through it with her fingers.

"It's time for you to meet your maker… if you had one."

She then thrust her arm forward, with her fingers formed like the tip of a sword, and was aimed at Nepgear's throat.

"…"

Everything was supposed to go according to how it should be, but…

"…?"

Yes, everything was supposed to go according to how things should be… yet…

"…"

"…She wasn't kidding… you look… really… pathetic…"

For the third time, everything should've gone according to how it should be…

"…Wake up… Nepgear…"

At the same moment, the life in Nepgear's eyes returned, but what had transpired was something no one expected.

"…Huh…?"

In front of Nepgear… was a girl. But not just anyone. Because she knew this girl completely.

And not just that, that girl had something sticking out of her chest.

"…K…Kei…?"

Yes, the person in front of Nepgear was Kei. As to why she was in front of Nepgear…

"…!"

Nepgear saw what was sticking out of Kei's chest. It was an arm equipped with something, and it was glowing. Blood was dripping out of Kei's chest, as well as her mouth. That arm just made a hole in Kei's torso.

All of a sudden, that arm was pulled back, which belonged to the woman to orchestrated everything. Kei then slowly fell down, but Nepgear caught her in time using whatever little strength she had left and led Kei's body on her lap.

"…No… Kei…!" Nepgear didn't know why Kei protected her. She knew that Kei harbored a grudge because of what happened to Noire, even though Kei didn't show it. "…I'm… I'm worthless… why did you-?"

Before Nepgear could finish what she wanted to say, Kei lift her right hand and touched Nepgear's cheek with her blood-covered palm.

"…Your job… is not… over…"

Nepgear's eyes widened after hearing those words from her. She was about to say something when Kei's lips moved again.

"…You… must…"

Kei's hand then slowly fell away from Nepgear's cheek as her eyes began to close.

"…Live…"

And then, Kei's hand fell down to the ground and her breathing stopped.

The atmosphere changed instantly. The crowd grew silent after what happened.

"…"

Out of nowhere, the skies turned gray, which made the people look up to it. The weather didn't look like it would bring down a rain; it just became cloudy.

"…What in the…?" Before the woman could finish her sentence, she immediately brought her attention back to Nepgear. There, she saw Nepgear holding a sword; a purple one, and it was already beside her neck as her head was leaning forward.

In an instant, Nepgear sliced the right side of her neck. Her blood dripped out of her, dyeing her clothes red.

"Heh, you are one crazy goddess, killing yours-?!"

She unconsciously interrupted herself as she saw something else. And that wasn't what she was expecting to see.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere was filled with intense dread.

* * *

**Aaaaaand, that's chapter one. Whew, this is one hell of a prologue. I usually just write a short one, but for some unknown reasons, I just can't let it end with that.**

**I proofread this as much as I can, but it's already 3AM when I uploaded this fic, so I might've missed some stuff. Please point mistakes out if you spot one so I can fix it when I wake up in the morning (or most likely afternoon, oof)**

**By reaching here, you would've known that I put a riddle in there. Pretty lame, to be honest. I cringed at it, really, but I can't think of anything.**

**Soooo, how do you guys like the first chapter? Drop your reviews!**

**I don't know when the second chapter will be released, but I'll try to work on it with every chance I get. I'm currently job hunting right now because I resigned from my previous work to take CCNA certification. And yes, I just passed it yesterday, yieeeeeeeeee.**

**Anyway, this is our wake up call for the new fic! I'll see you guys in the next chapter, ciao~**


	2. Awakening

**Hello guys! Time for chapter two!**

**My apologies for updating too long. Well, I kinda apologize every new chapter, so I don't think it matters anymore, heh.**

**In any case, I bring another not-so-lengthy chapter! It kinda became a norm to me after writing Change The World, whereas I wouldn't settle down if I don't reach the ten thousand word count. And yeah, it's really hard to write about a thousand in just one sitting when you have tons of other stuff to think about. One reason why I update slow. Another is procrastination, and lastly, my games (3 of them.)**

**Answering questions!**

**To Kurosu Cross: Hmm, I don't know if I'll go that far as showing each and every encounter because that'll make this fic lengthy as heck, and I'm not really fond of having twenty+ chapters in a single fic.**

**Anyhow, I don't know how many chapters this fic would have. My usual chapter count is pretty much obvious so I guess it would be around that, unless something happens.**

**By the way, if there's something unclear for you in the fic, don't hesitate to ask! Because I would sometimes put weird stuff in the paragraphs and not explain it clearly, or not explain it at all.**

**On to the chapter now, enjoy!**

* * *

Lastation.

Somewhere in the city, there was a large stage, and in front of it were a pack of people as audiences. But not only that, they were quietly staring at the people on the stage. Three people, to be exact.

"..."

What made the audience quiet was partly because of the people on the stage. The other one was, well, a little bit abstract. For some reason, the atmosphere around the area became so heavy that it made the crowd freeze on the spot.

Because the winds were singing the tune of death in everyone's ears.

Though the two people on the stage weren't affected... well, one of them only actually. The other one was still affected but not to the point of being the same state as the audience.

"What is going on...?" One of the two people on the stage, a woman, who was the one started all of this, mumbled to herself. She was staring at the other person on the stage, who was in front of her. That person was a girl with a glowing dark purple sword in her right hand. What's more, she was bleeding from her neck, but it didn't seem like it would kill her at any minute now.

"..."

That girl in question was named Nepgear, known as the CPU of Planeptune... or the CPU of the whole Gamindustri. She wasn't moving from her position; just sitting on the ground while holding the purple sword in her right hand. But not too long after that, she slowly rose up to her feet, but the upper half of her body was leaning forward a little, hiding her face from everyone.

"What are you...?" Before the woman could finish what she was about to say, Nepgear's body glowed in dark purple.

The woman then took a defensive stance to protect herself from whatever was about to happen. This situation was not in her calculations at all; totally unprecedented.

But all of a sudden…

**"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

A very loud cry was heard all over the area. The cry came from none other than Nepgear, who was now standing on the stage. The crowd instinctively covered their ears with their palms as Nepgear's cry was too loud that it could almost rupture everyone's eardrums. The window glass of the nearby shops was also shattered, along with the light bulbs that illuminate the streets at night.

As Nepgear's cry ended, the crowd lowered their arms and tried to catch their breathing. For some reason, Nepgear's cry drained the people's strength as a lot of them were shaking by their knees. Only the woman in front of Nepgear on the stage was different, but still, it affected her at some point.

"You…" The woman couldn't even finish her sentence as she stared at Nepgear. The malicious aura that was covering Nepgear grew intense.

More importantly…

"…Monster." The woman said.

Something happened on Nepgear's appearance. Aside from the dark purple aura that enveloped her entire body, there were small glowing dark red marks on Nepgear's right half-face that took shape of a Magatama. Not only one, but several of it, and it seemed to be reaching down to the right half of her body as well as the marks were crawling down on her neck. She was already in her HDD form but her appearance was completely different when compared to her usual one, as her processor unit was dyed in black and purple.

But that wasn't all. Nepgear's eyes were bloodshot, and her hair had shades of gray on the ends. She was gritting her teeth and was bleeding from it due to how hard she was doing it.

**"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Nepgear roared once more. This time, she stomped her foot and dashed towards the woman, catching her off-guard.

"Wha-?!"

The woman immediately raised a magic barrier and blocked Nepgear's attack, but she wasn't prepared for that and so she was pushed back as Nepgear delivered a heavy blow.

"Kuh…!"

But that didn't end there. Nepgear summoned another weapon on her left hand. It was her signature weapon, a gunblade. She then dashed towards the woman again in just a split second and delivered a heavy downward slash using her both weapons.

"…Ngh…!" The woman didn't manage to avoid the attack and just blocked it. She didn't expect Nepgear's speed to be this fast, as if she was moving in the speed of sound.

She couldn't compose herself at all.

**"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!"** Nepgear roared once more as she delivered another heavy downward slash, but the woman's barrier was still going strong.

But of course, Nepgear didn't let up as well. She delivered an upward slash using both of her weapons, then spun around to deliver a sideward slash, and finally did a non-stop random alternate slashes between her weapons.

"…Ngh…!" The woman couldn't keep up with Nepgear at all. Her arms were getting numb from the impact of Nepgear's attacks, and her barrier was gradually losing energy due to it. She couldn't move from her position at all because if she did, she knew she would get minced instantly judging from how fast Nepgear was slashing.

But, she was just delaying the inevitable.

Nepgear spun around once more and delivered an upward slash which finally broke the woman's magic barrier. The woman unintentionally lifted her arms due to the impact of Nepgear's attack.

"Ah-!"

Without wasting any moment, Nepgear pulled both her arms back while spinning both of her weapons to gather momentum, and then thrust it forward. Her weapons directly stabbed the woman's abdomen, piercing through her body.

"GUAH-!" The woman coughed blood as the blades made a hole in her body.

**"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" **Nepgear roared once more before splitting the woman's body in two by swinging both her weapons sideward, each in opposite direction. Blood splattered all over Nepgear as she sliced the woman.

The crowd could just witness in silence, but no longer after that, the people in the front who got blood splattered on them as well panicked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

The audience then dispersed in an instant due to fear. They were pushing each other as they tried to escape the vicinity.

Though of course, Nepgear didn't give two cares for them as she just stood her ground. She just stared at the woman, whose upper and lower body was separated. The woman was still breathing, albeit rather quickly due to her continuously losing blood.

Nepgear glared at the woman, who was, for some reason, grinning.

"The…"

The woman coughed blood again before continuing.

"…Revolution…"

Nepgear's bloodshot eyes widened as she realized what the woman was trying to do.

"…starts…!"

Nepgear immediately threw her purple sword towards the woman. The sword struck the woman's head, instantly killing her, but Nepgear realized that she was a second too late.

The woman had something like a switch on her right hand, and her fingers just pressed it.

All of a sudden, Nepgear could hear explosions from afar. She looked around her and saw smokes from a distance. Not only that, the sounds of the explosion were gradually becoming louder. As soon as she finally got the gist of the current situation, Nepgear immediately dashed towards Kei's body and protected it using her own body.

Moments after that, the whole area around Nepgear was covered in explosions.

**~o~O~o~**

_Dark._

_It was so dark. Ah, how long was it already? A year? Two years? A decade? A century? Millennia?_

_I honestly had no idea. I lost my sense of time when I arrived in this place._

_Arrived? No, that wasn't right. I was **thrown** into this place._

_Being in this place with nothing but my consciousness was surely aggravating. I was surprised that my sanity was still intact despite me being conscious but couldn't see anything other than darkness._

_Revenge._

_That was the only thing that was fueling my desire to get out of this place. To get back at the people who wronged me; the people who betrayed me._

_I would definitely see it happen with my own eyes._

_"…!"_

**~o~O~o~**

Unknown dimension.

Somewhere in this dimension, the sky just cracked. The pieces didn't fall down to the ground and instead, it just floated in mid-air. Not long after the sky cracked open, a girl came out of it and was falling down to the ground. It seemed like the girl was unconscious.

The girl was about to hit the ground when suddenly the air blew under her body, cushioning her landing. She safely landed on her back, but still, she was unconscious.

But not for long.

Her eyes twitched for a bit and then slowly opened. Her empty, dark blue eyes met the skies as she lied down on the ground with her back.

"…?"

She blinked twice before rubbing her eyes. It seemed like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"…Where… am I…?"

But nobody answered. She tried to sit up; fortunately, she wasn't devoid of strength, so she was able to do so. But she was greeted by another unusual thing as she looked around her.

"…What the hell happened here…?"

Around her were nothing but ruins. Several terrains were floating and the buildings on it were anything but in good condition.

She stood up and walked around. For some reason, this place seemed familiar to her.

"…"

She swung her head. She didn't believe what she just thought. Actually, it would make sense, but still, she didn't believe it.

"This place…"

She interrupted herself as she noticed a bright light from afar. From where she was standing, that light looked like several stars converging together, but looking at it closely, it wasn't the case.

"…"

Out of curiosity, she jumped to higher terrain to get closer to the bright light. As she did so, she was surprised that she didn't just manage to jump, but fly as well. She didn't do anything special, so flying should be impossible, but she did so anyway.

"…"

Discarding that thought, for now, she headed directly to where that bright light was. As she got close to the bright light, she finally realized where she was, and what was happening here.

"...I see…" She mumbled to herself and chuckled a little. "…This place... is _me…_"

The bright light was nothing like what she initially thought. It was actually shards of a broken crystal. And it wasn't just any crystal because she could feel herself resonating with it.

"…This… is my share crystal... or what's left of it." She mumbled. It would make sense, actually, after what she said earlier. "…This place manifested… through me."

And not just that…

"…This place… is Planeptune." She said as she sinisterly grinned. "…Or what should happen to Planeptune."

She was aware that this place wasn't the real Planeptune. Because a share crystal couldn't be that big; what's more, broken into pieces. When a share crystal breaks, not only the nation associated with it would indeed be heading to its impending doom, but the CPU governing it would meet the same fate. But since 'she' was still present, that would only mean that this place was nothing more than her own delusions.

"…That means the thing that sealed me is weakening…?"

She wasn't sure, but that would be the closest to her current situation. Another thing that she thought was her strong desire for revenge. She didn't assume that the seal was completely broken because even for herself, she knew that the seal wouldn't break that easily.

"No matter… I just need to bring _those_ together." She said as she tried to reach for the crystal.

As her finger touched the broken shard, her head jerked backward.

"…A-h…?"

She could hear a loud vibrating sound. It didn't seem like it entered through her ears, but instead, to her mind. Her vision was getting distorted, and her body felt like it was being split up.

That ordeal of hers didn't last long. As soon as it ended, she fell down on a floating terrain with her back. Surprisingly, she wasn't surprised that it didn't hurt. Maybe she was too strong? Or was she just numb from the stuff she just went through? Only she knew.

"…What the hell was that?" She asked herself. She didn't quite understand what happened. Just by touching that broken shard, she felt something change in her.

Like, a part of her disappeared.

"…"

She closed her eyes for a moment and lifted her right arm. She imagined something from her mind and as she did so, she opened her eyes. There, something just appeared on her right hand.

"…That was convenient."

It was a small mirror. Apparently, that was what she imagined just a few moments ago. She then turned the mirror around to see her appearance.

"…What…?"

She was surprised when she saw herself get reflected through the mirror.

"…Is that… me?"

Her eyes widened. As far as she could remember, what she was seeing wasn't her appearance at all. Her eyes were dark blue and a hue of light red. Her hair was also dark blue, with her clothes on the same palette. She was wearing an open-collar shirt, with only a necktie tying it. Her body was mostly covered by dark blue tights, showing no skin except her neck and just below it. She was also wearing a dark blue skirt, which was attached to a belt of sorts that went up to her shoulder, which somehow was the one holding it up. Lastly, on her left wrist was a device that was akin to a radio, but if she was using it or not, or if it was functioning or not would be a different matter.

"…Heh, I look like a villain now, huh…?"

She wasn't completely opposed to the idea. After all, there was only one thing that she wanted.

The destruction of Planeptune.

"…No, let's change that." She swung her head. "…Let's destroy the whole Gamindustri instead."

She chuckled at herself for a bit. "…First things first, I gotta find where _my_ Planeptune is."

She then floated away from the terrain she was on. Her eyes ran around, looking for a perfect place to land. As she did so, she opened a portal that was leading to somewhere by just putting her palm on the ground.

"…Hmm, this is quite convenient. By just thinking about it, I can make anything possible." She mumbled as she stared at the portal in front of her. "…I'm scared of this new power." She chuckled sinisterly.

Even though she said that, she knew that there were limitations, as far as she could remember how her powers worked before she was sealed.

"…Anyway, let's just get to it."

Without further ado, she stepped in the portal. The inside was a long tunnel, and she couldn't make something out of the background. It was totally abstract, nothing was concrete.

"…"

It had been about half an hour since she entered the passage. Truth to be told, she didn't know if she would end up in the right place. It had been a very long time since she used her powers, and she also wasn't used to her new power as well.

Shortly after that, she could see the end of the tunnel. She hurried up and instantly jumped out of the passage, but what she was greeted by was something she totally didn't expect.

"…What the hell is this?"

The skies were dark. Clouds were in the skies and lightning was emitting out of it. The buildings were in ruins; the roads were totaled; lampposts and signboards were scattered everywhere.

In a nutshell, the place was visited by a catastrophe.

"…Boy, surely the universe isn't kind to this dimension."

She continued to walk down the streets. Not a single soul could be seen as her eyes looked around. She wondered if the people got out, or they were obliterated by whatever incident that ruined this place.

As she continued her walk, her chest suddenly tightened which left her out of breath.

"…Ngh…!"

She dropped down on her knees as she clenched her chest with her fists. The pain was so intense that it felt like it was killing her.

"….Haaaah…. Ngh…"

The pain subsided after a short while. She then sighed in relief after it completely disappeared.

"…The heck was that for…?"

Alas, nobody answered her. But not too long after that, she saw four shooting stars up in the skies.

"…?"

Something was off. She focused her sight onto the four shooting stars, but she couldn't make something out of it. Her feeling was definitely telling her that those weren't normal shooting stars.

"…You gotta be shitting me…"

As soon as she realized what was happening, or what was going to happen, she immediately jumped away from her position as far as she could. Seconds later, the shooting stars dropped down to the ground just a kilometer or two from her previous location, causing a massive explosion.

"…!"

She braced herself for the incoming impact as she hid behind rubble. Good thing that she managed to gain a few good distances so the impact wasn't that strong from her position.

"…Now that was not pleasant, was it?" She sighed in relief as the impact died down.

She then moved away from the rubble to see what just happened, but to her surprise, she witnessed something absurd.

"…Hey, hey, what in hell's name is going on now?"

From her position, she could see four tall statues of different colors. Scratch that, those weren't statues because they were moving. It looked like a mecha of sorts, but she didn't know if those things were being operated by someone or not.

Only one way to find out.

"…Let's get a bit closer." She mumbled to herself.

Her plan was to sneak close to it. It would be bad if she got discovered before getting close. She might hold a lot of power, but getting crushed by that thing would definitely kill her and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

"…Good, I'm not spotted yet." She managed to sneak behind one of the mechas which was a little far from the rest. It seemed like each of them had their own roles as they were acting independently. One was wrecking the buildings, the other was shooting lasers to the horizon, while the rest were just walking forward.

"…Let's get a closer look."

She then jumped up to a building, and then jumped on the mecha's head. As soon as she did so, the mecha then was suddenly covered by dark red mist and eventually disappeared.

"Wha-?!" She was surprised as she saw the dark red mist entered her body. Due to the surprise, she wasn't able to keep herself from falling.

Fortunately, she managed to keep her head from falling first by cushioning her landing with her power. How did she do that was something only known to her.

"…Things just keep getting better and better."

Why did she say that? Well, judging from what happened, she just absorbed that mecha as her own. Or if she looked at it from a different perspective, that mecha was summoned by her unconsciously. How she concluded that was because of the pain she just experienced earlier as if her power went berserk for a short moment. And the timing was too perfect because these four appeared right after pain in her chest disappeared.

But of course, she believed the former one.

"…Let's get them out of the way."

She then jumped to the next mecha and the same thing happened. The same went for the remaining two. What surprised her was that whenever she absorbed one of those mechas, she felt her body lighter, as if a part of her was restored.

Though that was just her wishful thinking, of course.

After she absorbed the last mecha, she descended to the ground slowly. But what came afterward was something she never, ever expected to happen.

"…What the hell is going on…?"

There was someone approaching her. That person was a girl; she had an unpleasant look on her face. One could definitely tell that she was angry.

But that unpleasant look aside, what was more surprising was the two of them look identical. But the approaching girl's appearance had a slight difference. While they were wearing the same outfit, the other girl's color was inverted. Her collar shirt was white, and her hair was crimson-colored. Her eyes were amber, and she wore no bodysuit as her legs and abdomen were visible.

"You… why do you look like me?" The crimson-haired girl asked as she stopped a few meters in front of the dark blue-haired girl.

"…" The dark blue-haired girl just widened her eyes in surprise. Apparently not only their appearance looked the same, but also their voice. Aside from that, the dark blue-haired girl had another thing in her mind. Something that bothered her too much.

Without hearing a reply from the dark blue-haired girl, the crimson girl raised her voice. "Did you not hear me?! Or are you just pretending not to?"

But still, the dark blue-haired girl didn't reply and instead, she just chuckled, irking the crimson girl.

"What's so funny?!"

The dark blue-haired girl's chuckles died down, but it took her everything just to do so. Not literally, of course.

"…Nothing. That aside, may I ask you a question?"

"You didn't even answer my god damn question!"

The dark blue-haired girl sighed. "…I'll answer your question after you answer mine." Without waiting for a reply, she spoke again, "…Just how much do you remember?"

"What the hell are you talking about now?" The crimson girl was getting irritated.

The dark blue-haired girl just did a 'whatever' pose as she replied, "…Nothing. I'm just testing your memory; how did you find yourself in this place, or where were you before you came here."

Her answer seemed to have confused the crimson girl. "…This concerns your question as well, so It'll be nice if you play along with me for a while."

Now that caught the crimson girl's attention. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the dark blue-haired girl. She wondered if that girl was telling the truth, but if they kept this meaningless banter, nothing would happen in their current situation.

And so, she reluctantly played along with her.

"I… I have no recollection of my past." The crimson girl said. Though that reply was somehow expected by the dark blue-haired girl as she didn't have much reaction. "I woke up on top of a building, and without knowing what happened, this place is already like this."

"…Mhmm." The dark blue-haired girl just nodded as a reply as she knew that the crimson girl wasn't done talking yet.

"I tried looking for people to better understand my current situation, but it seems like there isn't anyone left in this place."

The dark blue-haired girl remained silent as she let her continue talking.

"But… there is one thing that I've learned when I was searching for people."

For some reason, that got the dark blue-haired girl's undivided attention. "…And that is?"

"This place… is a nation called Planeptune."

The dark blue-haired girl's eyes widened in surprise as she heard that. There were a lot of scenarios playing inside her mind as she found that out, but she didn't try to show it. If this was indeed Planeptune, then _that girl_ being here in front of her would definitely be a little problematic.

But she didn't compromise yet. "…How long have you been here?"

"For a few days now." She replied. "Now that you mentioned it, it felt like a long time already, I don't know."

The dark blue-haired girl placed a finger under her chin as she sorted out the newly acquired information. She just got out of her seal not too long ago, and the crimson girl arrived in this place a few days ago. Theoretically thinking, she accepted that 'her' dimension wasn't running at the same time as this dimension. And since there were no people to prove that this dimension existed before the crimson girl arrived here, she temporarily compromised that this dimension was also like 'her dimension'. One reason why she did that was that she learned that this place was Planeptune. And for Planeptune to be in this state would raise a lot of flags. For her, at least.

"That aside, those mechas that you defeated earlier, I'm thankful for that." The crimson girl said. The dark blue-haired girl sure didn't do that with the intention of defeating them, but she didn't bother saying that at it would present more problems later on. "I was fighting one of them two days ago for hours, so seeing four of them at the same time got me scared a little."

The dark blue-haired girl just waved her hand with an awkward look on her face, which confused the crimson girl.

"Now I've answered your questions, it's time for you to answer mine." The crimson girl said as she composed herself back.

The dark blue-haired girl sighed. Somehow, with just that information, she understood why this crimson girl appeared in front of her.

"…Yes, of course." The dark blue-haired girl replied. "…And to do that… we're going to play a guessing game."

The crimson girl popped a nerve as she heard that. "The hell is wrong with you?! Why can't you just be so direct?!"

"...Easy there, fella. We have all the time we need to talk." The dark blue-haired girl replied nonchalantly. Yes, with everything that she learned, they indeed have all the time they need.

Still, the crimson girl didn't calm down. And to avoid unnecessary banters, the dark blue-haired girl continued her talk. "…You're not the one who will do the guessing. That'll be me."

"Haah? What are you on to now?"

"…I'm just going to guess one thing about you and that will answer all your questions."

The crimson girl gritted her teeth in annoyance. "And that is?"

The dark blue-haired girl smirked before answering the crimson girl's question.

"…Your name."

The crimson girl became silent all of a sudden. For some reason, her heart started to race, as if she was afraid of something. Specifically, afraid of the girl in front of her. But she didn't let that get to her as she swung her head to clear her mind off.

"You're on, then." That was all the crimson girl could say. Even though she sounded confident that the dark blue-haired girl would fail, she couldn't shake that one feeling that something bigger was about to happen. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to be part of it or not.

The dark blue girl crossed her arms and smirked, which irked the crimson girl. The redhead was sure that the dark blue girl was mocking her.

"…Your name is…"

The redhead gulped. She was about to hear the biggest reveal.

"…Uzume. Uzume Tennouboshi."

The redhead's eyes widened in surprise. While she believed that it was just a coincidence, deep down in her heart, she knew that this would happen.

It was inevitable.

"How… how did you know? H-have we met before…?" She tried to deny it, but the dark blue-haired girl knew that.

"…Oh, no. This is definitely the first time that _we _met." The dark blue-haired girl said while emphasizing the word 'we'.

But of course, the crimson girl wasn't convinced with that. "T-Then, how…?!"

The dark blue-haired girl smirked again. "…Because _coincidentally,_ my name is Uzume Tennouboshi as well." She said while emphasizing the word 'coincidentally' sarcastically.

With that, the redhead Uzume concluded that the dark blue-haired girl was just messing with her. "Don't shit with me!"

Without any warning, she dashed to her and delivered a flying kick. But to her surprise, the dark blue Uzume did the same, and both their toes collided, which created a small shockwave under them, cracking the ground.

"Wha-?!"

They both backflipped and landed on the ground safely several meters away from each other.

"Just… Just what the hell are you…?!" The redhead Uzume asked.

The dark blue Uzume just crossed her arms. "…You still don't get it, even after I did that?"

"Your words and action don't explain anything!"

The dark blue Uzume sighed in disappointment. She didn't want to admit _it_, because if she did so, it would be like… _that._

"…I really hate to admit this, but you surely are a retard, despite being me."

The redhead Uzume popped a nerve. "Who the hell are you calling a retard?!"

"See, I pointed out two things, but you only noticed the 'retard' one."

Redhead Uzume went silent afterward. The reason why she didn't mention the other one was because she didn't want to believe it nor accept it. Her situation was already absurd as it was; adding what the dark blue Uzume said would just complicate her thoughts.

"…I guess you still don't accept the fact that you're me." The dark blue Uzume said as she sighed in disappointment.

"What, you expect me to believe that shit all of a sudden?" The redhead Uzume replied. "The situation we're in is already complicated; adding bullshit to that is the last thing I wanted!"

Without waiting for a reply, redhead Uzume dashed towards the dark blue Uzume. The other girl did the same and as they got close to each other, they delivered a forward punch. Their fists collided, creating an impact around them which cracked the ground under.

"…You're just in denial because you don't have your memory yet." The two of them delivered identical attacks at each other without stopping, with their attacks colliding.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Their exchange of blows continued for a while before both of them delivered an identical forward punch, which then separated them after the impact.

"…If I show you my memories, you'll remember everything."

"I said shut up!"

The redhead Uzume then dashed forward again, with the dark blue Uzume doing the same. But before their attacks reached each other…

"Wha-?!"

"…Oh…?"

Something dropped down in between them, stopping their attacks. Scratch that, it wasn't something, but _someone_. That person had their arms extended, touching both Uzumes' torsos, keeping both of them away from each other.

"…?!"

Without any warning, the newcomer grabbed both Uzumes' by the collar and threw them away after spinning twice. The redhead Uzume didn't manage to balance herself so she crashed onto the ground, while the dark blue Uzume did a backflip and landed on the ground safely.

"…What the hell…?"

The dark blue Uzume inspected who just interrupted them. She couldn't see the person's face clearly because of the hood covering it, but she knew that that person was a female. She was wearing a white sailor uniform and had long striped leg socks, after all.

"…Who are you…?"

The hooded girl then revealed her face by pulling her hood back. Dark blue Uzume was surprised to see the girl's face.

**"I am…"**

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune – Basilicom.

A certain Lilac-haired girl opened her eyes as she regained consciousness. The first thing that she saw was a ceiling; a ceiling that she wasn't really familiar with, but not completely alien to her. It was just because it wasn't every day that she was seeing this thing.

"…"

She tried to move her body. Fortunately, she was able to sit up, but it took a lot of her strength to do so as she was enveloped in pain when she moved her body. Her condition wasn't really good, and she was aware of that.

"…Ah, the med bay…"

Yes, she was in the med bay of the Basilicom. That was why the ceiling wasn't familiar to her. She rarely got sent here, after all.

She tried to get out of bed. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to because as soon as she tried to stand up, her legs seemed to be like a withered vegetable and so she fell down on the floor. Good thing that she managed to hold onto the bed to not completely fall down.

"…This is tough."

But she didn't give up. Slowly, she tried to stand up once more. Surprisingly, she managed to, though her legs were shaking madly. Any wrong move and she'll face the floor down immediately.

"…Hah…"

The first thing she tried to do was reach for the wall. Every step she took was a great hurdle. Aside from the pain in her body, it seemed like her eye-foot coordination was in disarray. She couldn't move her legs the way she wanted it to, and if she managed to do so, it had a long delay.

"…What happened to me…?" She mumbled to herself, but that wasn't the one that she was mostly concerned with. "…What happened… in Lastation…?

A question that she couldn't answer. It seemed like there was a gap in her memory when she was in Lastation. She could remember some things, but she also couldn't. Like how she ended up in this room.

Without her knowing it, she managed to reach the wall. She sighed in relief as she finally got support. The exit was at the other side of the room, so she had to circle around to get out. And that was her plan.

"…"

As she walked by the wall, she passed by a mirror. She stopped by it and unconsciously looked at herself.

"…?!"

There, the right half of her face and her neck were covered in bandages. She didn't notice it earlier even when she spoke because she was too preoccupied with the pain in her body. But now that she had a good look of herself, it seemed like her condition was worse than she would've expected.

But the thing was, she couldn't remember how she got injured. She had no recollection of getting these severe wounds. She touched her body to check if she had injuries there. And what she feared was true; she indeed had injuries in her body as well as she felt the bandages under her clothes.

"…Just what the hell happened to me…?"

She wouldn't be able to find out unless she would remove the bandages to see the extent of her injury. But of course, she had second thoughts with that. Bandages were there to keep the injuries from getting worse, after all.

But she would never know if she wouldn't remove them. That was the only way to ease her curiosity. As she made up her mind, she reached for the knot behind her head and untied the bandage.

Though what she saw was something she never expected in her life.

"…W-W-Wha…- what… is this…?"

Her body trembled as she saw her face. There were black marks that covered the right half of her face. Her right eye seemed to have lost its light but her vision wasn't affected at all.

"…Ah-!"

She noticed the black marks weren't just on her face as she saw some under her chin as well. To confirm her suspicions, she removed the bandage on her neck, and what she saw was what she feared.

"…Ah- Ah-!" Her voice was gradually getting louder.

There, the black marks were on her neck as well. And as she thought, it covered only the right half. And since it managed to reach her neck, she was afraid that it would reach her body as well.

Without any hesitation, she removed her upper clothing and undid the bandages. And what she saw was a complete nightmare.

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!" **She couldn't contain her voice anymore and let out a very loud scream.

The black marks reached the right upper half of her torso. Those marks took the shape of a magatama, and Nepgear could only feel malevolence from it.

Shortly after that, the door burst open and someone entered the room.

"Nepgear?! What's going on?!"

The girl named Nepgear turned to the door. There, she saw a small girl sitting on a floating tome heading towards her.

"Hi-Histoire… Histoire…!" Nepgear cried. "What… h-h-happened to me…?"

As Histoire finally realized what was going on, she had a worried look on her face. She turned back to the door; apparently, she wasn't the only one who came running to this room when Nepgear screamed. A lot of the Basilicom staff were just outside the room. Histoire signaled them to leave them alone for the time being, which they abided without any questions.

"Nepgear… I'm sorry, but I don't know either." Histoire replied with a frown. "When we rescued you and Kei in Lastation, your appearance had already become like that."

Now, that made Nepgear anxious as she definitely had no recollection of herself turning into that. That aside, she just remembered something… or someone after hearing what Histoire just told her. She didn't want to believe what her memory was telling her.

"What about Kei? Where is she?"

Histoire twitched after hearing that question. She didn't reply anything and just averted her eyes. Nepgear's heart raced as she saw Histoire's reaction. It seemed like her memory was telling her the truth.

"…Where is she?" Nepgear's voice became a little deeper as she lowered her head.

Histoire didn't say anything and just turned around. "…Cover yourself first, then follow me."

Nepgear didn't say anything in return and just complied with Histoire's orders. She changed to her usual white sailor uniform, but it was a modified one. She was now wearing a hooded one, and the hood was covering her right face. She didn't really want anyone to see her like this.

Well, she might hide her face for the rest of her life, unless she found a way to improve her condition.

As soon as she got changed, she headed for the door. She still could feel her legs being wobbly, but at the very least she can walk on her own, albeit being slow. Histoire suggested that Nepgear should use a cane but the CPU didn't want that. She couldn't let her people see her in a pathetic state.

'Nepgear…' Histoire was worried. Nepgear was definitely pushing herself too far, to the point that she neglected her own body. Histoire might've not seen it with her own eyes, but she knew that Nepgear was getting tortured… or torturing herself day by day by the burden placed on her shoulders.

"I'm ready." Nepgear said. Histoire didn't say anything and just nodded as a response.

The two of them went out of the room and headed downstairs. Their destination was the conference room in the ground level, near the Basilicom's lobby. They didn't talk along the way even though there were a lot of things to talk about, especially the incident in Lastation, but Histoire couldn't bring it up to Nepgear. And so, she just kept her mouth shut until they arrived at their destination.

"We're here." Histoire said as she stopped by the conference room's door. She then led Nepgear inside the room.

"…"

There were several people inside, but not all seats were filled. The people turned to them as Nepgear and Histoire went inside the room. They were about to approach them but Histoire signaled them to stay still in their seats. Nepgear just gave them a wave while hiding the right half of her face with her hood, telling them that she was fine, which reassured the people.

On the other side of the room was a huge portrait of a certain person. Nepgear completely recognized the person in that picture.

"Kei…"

Yes, it was a portrait of Kei, and below it was a casket. Nepgear and Histoire walked towards the casket. As soon as they got close, they looked inside it. There, they saw Kei's body inside surrounded by white roses. The two of them paid their respects.

"Histoire…" Nepgear called in a low voice. "How long was I out?"

"…Six days." Histoire reluctantly answered.

Nepgear didn't answer and just clenched her fists as she stared at Kei. Part of her wished that the situation could've gone better, but there was nothing she could do anymore. While she was indeed the sole CPU of Gamindustri, Nepgear still left the other nations to their respective Oracles. She might have the final call for decisive matters but the discussions were left to the Oracles and the Basilicom. And so, every action of each nation was her responsibility, and hers alone. Not the Oracles, nor the Basilicom, but only her.

And that was what probably branded her as a tyrant by every rebellious group.

Yes, there was a lot of rebellious groups that she had dealt with before, but they were all just social activists. The attack on Lastation was on a different level. Gaining a lot of influence, winning the hearts of some citizens, their schemes really went under the radar.

"…"

Nepgear clenched her fists tighter. Her nails pierced her palms a little which made it bleed. She should've interacted with Kei more, but she was afraid. After all, Nepgear was involved in a great history which left long-lasting damage to not just the Oracles, but to the people as well, and she didn't want any of those to happen again.

But there it was, the thing that she most feared happened in front of her. She could've done better, but her fear and guilt dominated her.

Without saying anything, Nepgear turned around and headed for the exit. Histoire tried to call for her but she was too late as Nepgear already made her exit. The people in the room were bewildered with Nepgear's actions, but Histoire just told them that Nepgear was still recovering, which they understood.

Just a few minutes after, they heard a very loud scream from the outside. Histoire immediately went out of the conference room but didn't see any commotion in the lobby. Instead, she saw the people looking upward as if the scream came from upstairs.

"Nepgear…"

Histoire was getting worried how long Nepgear would be able to keep her sanity if things were to go on like this.

**~o~O~o~**

Nepgear's room.

Nepgear dropped down on her bed. She wasn't able to contain her emotions and let out a scream as soon as she got inside her room. Nepgear failed to protect Kei, and instead, Kei gave her own life to protect Nepgear, and she hated herself for it.

"…Some Goddess I am…!"

Nepgear slammed her fists on her bed as she sobbed. She kept beating the bed until she heard a knock on the door.

"Nepgear? It's me, Histoire. Can we talk for a bit?"

Nepgear stood up and wiped her tears before opening the door. "What's wrong?"

Histoire stared at Nepgear. She seemed fine at a distance, but seeing her up close, Histoire knew that Nepgear wasn't alright. She noticed that Nepgear's eyes were a little red.

"I… uh… I don't think you'd want to hear this right after you woke up but-"

"Just spill it out." Nepgear said.

Histoire twitched a little. "Lastation is… Lastation is gone. The share crystal that was keeping the divine protection of the nation was destroyed along with the Basilicom. The whole nation is a wreck."

Nepgear's eyes widened. She tried to remember, but her memory had a lapse. She couldn't remember it at all. And it gave her a severe headache.

"Nepgear…!" Histoire immediately went to Nepgear's aid as she suddenly lost her balance. Good thing that Nepgear managed to grab onto the wall so she didn't fall down at all. "I'm sorry, but I can't keep it hidden from you."

Nepgear swung her head. "No, I'm glad that you told me early." She said. "…Can you please leave me alone for a while?"

Histoire didn't say anything and just nodded reluctantly. "Leave work to me for now. I'll take care of things regarding Kei's funeral as well, so please just get some rest. You really need it."

Nepgear just nodded as a reply before Histoire left the room. She then went back to her bed and lied down.

"Lastation… is gone…?"

Despite not looking so surprised in front of Histoire earlier, it was definitely the opposite inside Nepgear. She didn't just lose Kei, but also Lastation. She failed to protect Noire's country.

"…"

Her heart started to race. Her breathing got faster as if she was running out of it.

"…How… would I… face Noire… and Uni… after this…?"

She was afraid. Now that Lastation was gone, it would appear that Noire and Uni died in vain.

"…Somebody… please…"

Nepgear's breathing became faster and faster. Her vision was gradually becoming hazy and she was feeling lightheaded.

"…Help… me…"

Shortly after that, she lost consciousness.

**~o~O~o~**

_Dark._

_It was so dark. I could neither see my arms nor legs. It was just pure darkness in here._

_I moved my legs. I had no idea if I managed to, but it felt like I did take a single step forward. I had no idea how long I was doing that; I just didn't stop at all._

_After a short while, I saw a light from afar. As if captivated by it, I hurried towards it. I didn't know if I was running already; I paid no heed to it at all._

_Even so, I felt like I wasn't getting close to it at all._

_"…"_

_All of a sudden, as if a wormhole just swallowed me, I instantly arrived in front of the light. It was a big one, like a bright star. Even when my eyes were glued to it, it didn't seem like a blinding light._

_"…!"_

_Out of nowhere, two silhouettes walked to the light from both sides. I couldn't quite see who they were because they were right in front of the light with their backs facing me._

_"…!"_

_Without any warning, the light disappeared. Total darkness enveloped the place once more. I didn't get the chance to see who the two people in front of me, so I tried to call out to them._

_"Hello?! Is anybody still in there?!"_

_No replies. I called once more but in a louder voice. This time, I got a reply._

**_"We're here, Nepgear."_**

_My heart skipped a beat as I heard that voice. I completely recognized that voice. It belonged to someone who was a part of my life._

_"Is that you… N-"_

_All of a sudden, the area around me became distorted, like a TV with bad signal reception. Not only that, I felt someone was choking me by the neck._

_"Nrghk…!"_

_I couldn't see who was doing it as I had my eyes closed, but it felt like it wasn't just a single person doing it. I could feel two pair of hands choking my neck, and they were growing stronger by the second._

_"…!"_

_I couldn't breathe. My neck was getting crushed._

_With my futile attempts, I tried to release my neck from the hands that were choking me, but for some reason, my hands couldn't touch anything at all. _

_At the very least, I wanted to see who was trying to kill me. With my remaining bits of strength, I opened my eyes slowly._

_But what I saw made my heart stop beating._

_I saw two pairs of eyes staring at me. Not only that, those eyes were crying, but they weren't tears._

_Blood. Those eyes were crying blood._

_What was more, I completely recognized those faces; they were…_

**_"No-!"_**

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune – Basilicom.

Inside her own room, Nepgear opened her eyes. She met her room's ceiling and felt that her back was lying on something soft. He breathing was a little faster than normal

"…"

It seemed like she fell asleep. It was already morning when she checked the time.

"…The hell was that dream...?" She said as she tried to recover her breathing. Even though she said that she could barely remember a single speck of it. That was too blurry in her mind. Yet she knew that it was disturbing.

She slowly sat up on the bed. Her body didn't feel as heavy as yesterday. That long sleep helped her recover, even by just a bit. But the thing that she noticed was her sweating body, despite the AC turned on.

But still, when she looked at the mirror it completely woke her up.

"…I guess it wasn't a dream."

Not the dream that she had during her sleep, of course. Her appearance was still the same. The black magatamas on her face were still there, and even if she tried to wash it away, it didn't disappear. Those marks were going to stay with her for life.

And of course, she wasn't fond of that idea.

Nepgear decided to go out for a while. She didn't really like staying indoors for too long as it could make her movements sluggish.

"I should drop by Histoire's office first…"

And that was what she did. She visited Histoire's office to inform her that she was about to go out. Histoire seemed to be opposed to the idea because she just told Nepgear yesterday to rest, but she didn't refuse Nepgear's request. Instead, she just told Nepgear to be careful.

Nepgear took Histoire's advice to mind and headed out of the Basilicom. The people still recognized her even though she covered her face with her hood, and so she just waved at them as a sign of acknowledgment.

She wandered on the streets for a while. It felt wrong to her that she could see a very peaceful atmosphere in Planeptune despite the events in Lastation days ago. While of course, she was glad that Planeptune didn't get caught in that incident, she still couldn't help but feel unwell.

Because it was as if Lastation was sacrificed for Planeptune safety, which was of course not the case, but Nepgear's mind was in a complete jumble that even a trivial thing gave her a lot of confusion.

Before her mind could overload, she swung her head and decided to drop by the Guild. Maybe taking a quest or two would help her relax. Wouldn't really call that relaxing, to be honest, but whatever she had to do to get her mind out of those thoughts, she'd take it.

Nepgear was greeted by the Guild's receptionist as she arrived. She kept the right half of her face hidden by her hood, but the receptionist didn't bother prying on it even though she wanted to ask. Nepgear noticed the expression on the receptionist's face; she knew that the girl was curious.

But of course, she didn't humor her. Nepgear just requested if there were any investigation quests. She wasn't really in the mood of doing subjugation quests because that'd be pretty dangerous given her state of mind. In any case, there wasn't any, so Nepgear was left a little disappointed.

After that, she left the Guild and did some patrolling. Walking on the streets wouldn't be a bad thing; she might run into something… well, interesting, maybe.

_"…lp me…"_

Nepgear stopped in her tracks. She was sure she heard a voice directed to her ears even though a lot of people were around her. Her eyes ran around to look for clues but for some reason, she couldn't find anything unusual. And so, she started to walk again.

_"Any… -lp…"_

Now that completely made Nepgear sure that she wasn't just hearing things. She ran inside a nearby ally and focused herself on the voice. It seemed like that voice wasn't going to her ears, but to her mind instead.

As she walked in the alleys, the voice was gradually getting clearer and clearer. As she made good progress mapping the alley, she accidentally kicked something. She looked down to see what it was.

"…What is this…?"

The thing she just kicked looked like a rectangular cube. It was a little small that it was almost the same size as her palm, just a little bigger. There was a swirl mark on top of it that looked like a logo of sorts, and it had a power cord attached.

"…This mark seems familiar."

Without her noticing, the voice she was hearing earlier was completely clear, albeit it not frequently whispering to her mind. Without wasting any second, she placed the object inside her pocket and returned back to the Basilicom.

Nepgear hurried back to her room. She didn't even bother dropping by Histoire's room as she really didn't want to disturb her, and her attention was completely glued to the object inside her pocket. As soon as she got inside her room, she locked the doors and took the object from her pocket.

_"…Anyone in here…?"_

She could still hear that voice from nowhere. Now she was sure that the object she just brought home had something to do with that, and so she went to the nearest power socket. She was about to plug the cord in when her hand froze.

"…"

She didn't understand why her hand was shaking. That was when she realized what she just did. She just started to hear things, brought home an unusual thing that could be powered up; all of it happened in just a short span of time. And she was supposed to get some rest, not stress.

"…"

But she couldn't sit still. It was as if someone was calling her, and it was coming from the object on her hands. She wanted to find out.

And that was what she did.

"…Here goes nothing."

As soon as Nepgear plugged the cord, the whole room was covered in white.

* * *

**And, there you have it folks! Chapter 2 is done!**

**Yep, it didn't get to my 10k word count mark. Can't really do anything about it as I don't really want to add more filler stuff just to reach that. I'll just make it up in the next chapter, heh.**

**In any case, what do you guys think? I know casualties aren't new to you guys XD Drop it in the reviews :D**

**I wanna get this out early, but in this fic, you can assume that there's time dilation in between dimensions. So expect time doesn't flow at the same way between them. It would be much easier to explain stuff that way. **

**So yeah, I'll see you guys in the next chapter. Ciao~**


	3. Approaching Danger

**Hi guys, Eraviel here!**

**Hmm, I don't know if the second chapter was well-received. Though that one single review got to me. Thank you very much~ I'm glad that there are people who still love my works xD**

**I think I should work on a happy fic after this one. Crows might go white.**

**Also, I apologize if my updating took forever. My schedule is eating me away.**

**Anyway, I estimated a few stuff for this fic, and I think it's not going to be as long as Change The World. So I decided to work on this quicker (Heh, who am I kidding).**

**Also, I'm no science guy so if there's anyone who can correct what I wrote in the middle of the fic, please do so. I'd appreciate that.**

**So, there's that for now. Onto chapter 3, enjoy!**

* * *

Unknown Dimension.

Nepgear slowly opened her eyes as she regained consciousness. She was lying down on a concrete, with no actual idea why.

Actually, she had one.

Earlier, she was just in her room. It was suddenly covered by a blinding light when she powered on the object that she picked up from the alley. After that, she had no recollection.

"…?"

She sat up. The first thing she did was observe her surroundings, but as she did so, there was only one thing that she knew how this place looked.

Bizarre.

"…Where am I?"

She had no idea. It seemed like she was on top of a building, but even so, she could see that there was something going on in this place. The skies were so ominous as they were died in purple, and random lightning were popping out from it. The other infrastructures around were also ruined beyond recognition.

"What a terrific fate this place had…"

Yes, that was the only conclusion she could make. A catastrophe surely passed by this place that destroyed everything on its way. The biggest question was what kind of calamity did just happen?

Nepgear would never know.

She stood up and stretched her body. It didn't feel stiff as she would've expected, which made her confident that she wasn't unconscious for a long time. In any case, she was glad that it was the case.

"…I should look around for information."

Nepgear jumped down from the building. It had several floors but Nepgear didn't seem to be bothered by it as she landed on the ground safely. She walked down the streets while inspecting her surroundings.

"…"

As she did so, she felt something was off. Not exactly off but it was giving her a weird chill. The places she was seeing, the buildings around her; it gave her a weird feeling, like she knew what those were.

"…!"

She stopped on her tracks as a thought popped inside her mind.

"Could this be…?"

Nepgear looked around once more. She was feeling restless as if she knew what was going on. Actually, as if she knew _where she was_.

She ran through the streets as if she was looking for something.

"If this is what I think it is, then next to this street is…!"

With her racing heart, she turned right to the next street, and what greeted her was a tall building. Of course, it was in ruins. The windows were shattered and the walls were almost crumbling.

Those aside, Nepgear had an inkling feeling that her hunch was right. And guess what…

"…I knew it." Nepgear mumbled. She couldn't even hide her surprise anymore. "…This is the Guild."

Since her assumptions were correct, that would only mean…

"…This is… Planeptune…?"

Yes, Planeptune. The nation she was leading on. She knew Planeptune like the back of her hand, and so if the directions she just ran into were the same as the one she remembered, there was no room for any doubts.

But of course, she didn't accept it like it was a matter of fact.

"…Did that object do this…?"

Nepgear inspected herself. There were no signs of that object in her. It also felt weird that if that thing caused this calamity, she should've gotten caught in whatever stuff it released. But no, she was unscathed; and that thing just did what it should have done.

"If this is Planeptune… but at the same time, not, then…"

At the very least, Nepgear could only think of one conclusion.

"…This is not my Planeptune… or not my world."

With that thought in mind, she sighed in relief. Still, being in this ruins gave her the creeps. More importantly, she had no idea how to return back to her own nation.

"Is anybody in here anyway…?"

She then started to walk around aimlessly, hoping to find someone. Well, if she were going to be honest with herself, judging from the state this place was, the chances of bumping onto a living person would be close to zero.

"…"

It had been a while since she left the guild. She didn't even know if she was walking in circles because there were no signs on the road nor even something that can be considered a landmark. In any case, she didn't stop and just kept on walking.

"…?"

She stopped on her tracks as a sound just entered her ears. She looked around but saw nothing unusual.

"…Must be my imagination."

Nepgear was about to take another step when she heard that sound again. This time, it came with a small tremor. That made her sure that she wasn't just hearing things.

"…"

She concentrated and tried to pinpoint where the sound and the tremors came from. After a few moments, and as the luck sided her, the sound and the tremor were coming from the same direction.

"I don't know what's causing that but, it wouldn't hurt to take a peek."

Nepgear then turned around and jumped on a building as she headed to the direction where she picked the sound and the tremor. As she did so, the sound became clearer.

"…Are people… fighting?"

That was she thought as the sound she was hearing was the sound battle cries. As she got closer, she hid herself by staying on top of a high building and inspected what was going on. From there, she could see two people, who looked identical to each other, save for the color palette, fighting against each other.

"What the hell…?" Was all Nepgear could say. They were exchanging blows at each other, but that's not what caught Nepgear's attention. It was that their moves were completely identical to each other as well, so the attacks were just colliding at each other.

At some point, their exchange of attacks stopped. From Nepgear's point of view, it seemed like the two were having a conversation. She just hoped that they would stop so she could approach them, but not long after that, they were already preparing to attack each other.

"…Oh, for heaven's sake."

Nepgear put her hood on and jumped up to the skies. She was going to interrupt their little party.

"I am so not in the mood for this…"

She then dropped down in between the two people who were about to deliver an attack to each other.

"Wha-?!"

"…Oh…?"

The two fighters were surprised as Nepgear interrupted them by touching their torsos. Not long after that, Nepgear grabbed their collars and threw them away after spinning twice. One of them, who had a red hair, crashed onto the ground while the other one, who had a midnight blue hair managed to land on the ground safely.

"…Who are you…?" The midnight blue-haired girl asked as she composed herself.

Nepgear eyed that person for a few moments before pulling her hood backward, revealing her face. The midnight blue-haired girl was surprised as she saw Nepgear's face.

"I am… the CPU of Planeptune."

"…No, you're not." The midnight blue-haired girl said.

Now that was reply Nepgear wasn't expecting. She was totally refuted by that girl. Nepgear realized that her words were incomplete, and she was about to say something again when she noticed the midnight blue-haired girl had different intentions, so she decided to keep the fact that she came from another world.

"Why do you not believe me?"

The midnight blue-haired girl smirked. "…Because I…" She paused for a bit as she pulled the redhead girl up. "…No, we are the CPUs of Planeptune."

"Huh?" Both Nepgear and the redhead girl was surprised to hear that.

"Why are you surprised?" Nepgear asked. The question was directed to the redhead girl who had this dumb look on her face.

"Why wouldn't I? That's the first time I heard of it!" The redhead girl answered, though that really didn't mean much to Nepgear. "What kind of joke is this?!" The redhead asked the girl beside her.

The midnight blue-haired girl didn't look at the redhead's direction and just stared at Nepgear. "…Why would you take it as a joke? I never meant it as one."

She was dead serious on what she just declared.

The redhead girl became silent afterward. She didn't know what to say anymore. Actually, she didn't know what to believe between the two. One random girl declaring that she was the CPU of the place that they were currently in, and the other girl declaring that she was the one along with her.

"Seems like the two of you don't agree with each other." Nepgear said.

The midnight blue-haired girl just smirked. "…Well, I was about to tell that to her but you interrupted us."

Nepgear glared at her. The midnight blue-haired girl didn't even flinch nor react to that, and there were no hints of deception from her.

Of course, the midnight blue-haired girl had different intentions. "…Going back to the topic, how would you prove that you're the CPU of Planeptune?" She asked. "…Can you transform?"

Nepgear closed her eyes. She tried to feel the power of shares but for some reason, she couldn't. Well, that was to be expected since she was in a different dimension. The shares wouldn't reach that far.

"No, but I'll have you take my words as the truth." Nepgear said. That sounded like a dictator's line but Nepgear couldn't care less. She had no other way of proving her words because the only method she could use wasn't available.

Or was it?

"…I'm afraid not, dear. You're going to prove it to us." The midnight blue-haired girl said as she took a battle stance.

"Us?" The redhead beside her seemed to be confused.

The midnight blue-haired girl didn't bother entertaining her and just said, "…Get up. We're going to test her."

"Why should I? This is your problem, not mine!"

The midnight blue-haired girl just sighed. "…It concerns you too. Besides, I can feel that she's really strong, and I can't fight her alone, now that we're split up."

The redhead grumbled before standing up on her feet. She then took a battle stance as well, completely the same as her identical twin (Or so).

As soon as Nepgear saw them ready up, she clicked her tongue out of irritation. "This is a waste of time…" She then summoned her beam blade on her left hand and made a battle stance.

"…Are you left-handed?" The midnight blue-haired girl asked. While left-handed people were not really that uncommon, it was a little bit unusual to hold a sword using your left hand because you usually use that for shields or another sword as a sub weapon.

"No, I'm not, but I prefer it this way." Nepgear said.

The redhead was somehow annoyed by that. "Seems like you're underestimating us." With that, she finally got the reason to have a match against Nepgear.

"My thoughts say the otherwise but you're free to think what you like." Nepgear said. "Now, come at me."

Without saying anything, the midnight-blue haired girl dashed towards Nepgear and delivered a downward kick after flipping herself forward. Nepgear blocked the attack using her beam sword, but the attack didn't end there as the midnight blue-haired girl spun around while she used the sword as a platform and delivered another kick using her other foot, which Nepgear blocked using her right arm.

"Kuh…!" Nepgear felt a slight pain from her right arm as she blocked the attack.

"…You forgot that there's two of us."

Nepgear's eyes widened as she felt danger from behind. The redhead girl slipped under her radar and managed to get behind her.

"I have nothing against you, but if this will get me answers, then I apologize in advance."

The redhead was about to deliver a kick to Nepgear's back when Nepgear stomped her foot on the ground. All of a sudden, the ground under them cracked, creating a crater, and rays of light emerged from it.

"Shi-!" The two identical persons instinctively backed away from Nepgear. After that, a pillar of light emerged from the crater, engulfing Nepgear with it.

"Did she just…?" The redhead didn't manage to complete her question.

The midnight blue-haired girl swung her head. "…No, I'm sure she's not so stupid to hurt herself, and I'm sure she's not weak to be affected by it even on the slightest degree."

"Yeah, I can somehow see that." The readhead said her attention was directed to the pillar of light, which was sliced into two and revealed Nepgear unscathed.

"That was a fantastic combination. Despite you two seems to be in a disagreement, your movements are in sync with each other." Nepgear said as she stabbed her sword on the ground.

The two was silent. While the midnight blue-haired girl knew why because it was really obvious, the redhead didn't seem to understand that. But she kept her mouth shut as it wasn't really the time to entertain such trivial thing.

"So, was that enough proof for you?" Nepgear asked. "I can't do this all day, I have some things I have to do and I need you two to answer my questions."

The midnight blue-haired girl just smirked. "…I'm sorry, but until I'm convinced, we're doing this all day."

The redhead just stared at her in horror, with a face telling her 'why-the-hell-are-you-provoking-her?'. Because she seriously did not want any of this anymore, but her identical twin seemed to be a lost cause.

"…Just stand down already!" Nepgear then stomped her foot and dashed towards the midnight blue-haired girl. "I don't have time for this!"

The midnight blue-haired girl noticed Nepgear's distress as she blocked her blade using a megaphone that she took out from thin air. Nepgear didn't quite understand why a megaphone as a weapon but because she only had one thing in mind, she didn't bother questioning it.

The girl with a megaphone thought she could take advantage of Nepgear's recklessness, but…

"…?!"

She was surprised as she saw Nepgear flipped forward as she slid her blade on the megaphone. She then delivered a downward kick, but the midnight blue-haired girl blocked it using her arms. As the attack connected, the ground under them cracked, creating a small crater.

"…You always for-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Nepgear interrupted her as she threw her blade behind her. "I didn't."

Out of nowhere, the midnight blue-haired girl heard a surprised voice, and a second after that, Nepgear disappeared and reappeared several meters in front of her. But that wasn't all; she saw her identical twin got blown away as she received a kick from Nepgear. She clicked her tongue and dashed back to Nepgear.

"…Let's see if you can block this!"

Nepgear turned around and saw the midnight blue-haired girl already behind her in mid-air. She was about to counterattack but what happened next was something she didn't expect.

"**HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" **The midnight blue-haired girl screamed on the megaphone and created a strong sonic wave.

"Ngh…!" Nepgear instinctively covered her ears after she stabbed her sword on the ground. The sonic wave was continuous, and for some reason, the gravity was stronger than normal that it was pulling Nepgear's body down to the ground.

'…This girl… is too strong.' The midnight blue-haired girl thought as she pressed on the attack. Despite the increase of power she was putting in her attack, Nepgear still wouldn't go down on her knees.

Luckily, her identical twin didn't seem to be a dense one. She was dashing back to Nepgear and jumped up to deliver a downward kick. Despite being in a predicament, Nepgear still noticed that.

"…"

Time seemed to have slowed down from Nepgear's perspective. She couldn't move due to the sonic wave bringing her body down, and then there was an incoming attack from the side. Whichever angle she looked at, if she wouldn't do something about it, she'd definitely receive the blow.

But of course, Nepgear wouldn't just let that happen.

"Like I said…!"

The midnight blue-haired girl's eyes widened as she saw Nepgear uncovered her ears and grabbed her beam sword. A moment after that, her ears started to bleed.

"…I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!"

Nepgear pulled her sword up and stabbed it back on the ground. And in an instant…

"Wha-?!"

A dark purple pillar emerged from Nepgear's position and rose up to the skies after an explosion that was caused by sword stabbing the ground. The identical persons were both blown away by the explosions, and this time, they didn't manage to compose themselves and crashed onto the ground.

The identical persons regrouped several meters away from the dark purple pillar that was coming out of the smoke caused by the explosion.

"What the hell happened…?" The redhead asked.

"…I think we just pissed her off." The midnight blue-haired girl replied.

That made the redhead smack her identical twin, but it was dodged. "This is your fault!"

"…I know, but I had to make sure." She replied with a serious look. "…That she's indeed the CPU of Planeptune."

That somehow confused the redhead. She was about to ask about that when suddenly a gust of wind headed on their way, which made them brace themselves because it was a strong one. Along with that, the dark purple pillar disappeared and the smoke was cleared.

As soon as that ordeal ended, they had a good look on Nepgear. They saw her wielding another weapon on her right hand which was glowing in dark purple and an aura of the same color was oozing out of it. Not only that, the mark on Nepgear's face was glowing in dark red, with her right eye as well.

"…Ngh." The midnight blue-haired girl gulped as she saw Nepgear's state. She could feel a lot of pressure coming from her. The difference in strength and power was clearly visible to eyes.

She, or they had no chance of winning against her.

"…What in the hell is that…?" The redhead couldn't believe what she was seeing. She turned to her identical twin and saw that she was just frozen in place as she stared at Nepgear. "What do we do now?"

The midnight blue-haired girl just grinned nervously at her. "…We give up. That's indeed a power that only a CPU can handle." She then raised both of her arms as a sign of surrender. The redhead followed suit.

Nepgear lowered both her weapons and a little after that, the dark purple blade disappeared from her right hand and she fell down on her knees. Her breathing seemed to a little heavy as if a lot of strength was drained from her.

The two approached Nepgear as she composed herself.

"So, are you… convinced now…?" Nepgear asked between her breaths.

The two nodded. "…Yes, I'm convinced." The midnight blue-haired girl just answered while the redhead just nodded furiously.

Nepgear sighed in relief. "Good… if we had dragged that fight, I might've lost all reason and kill both of you instead."

That statement sent chills to the identical persons. "What do you-" The redhead tried to ask a question but she was stopped by her counterpart.

"…That power… why do you have that?" The midnight blue-haired asked in a serious note.

Nepgear narrowed her eyes a little. "You… you're aware of this power?"

The midnight blue-haired girl nodded. "…Yes, I am aware of it. That's why I'm asking you why do you have that power."

Nepgear didn't reply and just embraced herself as she looked away from them with a pained expression. The midnight blue-haired girl's eyes widened as she saw Nepgear's actions.

"…No, you didn't just…" A horror just dawned on the midnight blue-haired girl.

The redhead didn't seem to get what was going on between the two. "Hey? You're kind of leaving me in the dark here, what's going-?"

"If you're aware of it, they you already know why…" Nepgear replied with a sad smile on her face without looking at them.

As they heard Nepgear's words, the midnight blue-haired girl grabbed the redhead's arm and said, "…Let's become one."

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" The redhead didn't seem to comprehend what her twin just said. Though she might've said that, their conversation earlier just came back to her and realized what her intentions were.

"…I've mentioned this earlier to you, but you're me, and I'm you. We're originally the same person but we're split into two by something I am not sure yet, but that's the gist of it." The midnight blue-haired girl said to her twin. "…One of us would definitely lose our own personality, and we will gain the memories of the other."

That somehow scared the redhead. Since they were originally the same person, if she were to lose her own personality, that was tantamount to dying. And of course, that didn't sit well with her.

That was quite obvious to the midnight blue-haired girl. Seeing her twin's expressions, she couldn't help but chuckle mentally.

This talk somehow confused Nepgear as she just brought her gaze towards them, but she didn't dare interrupt their discussion. It seemed like a very serious one, after all.

"…You don't have to worry about anything." The midnight blue-haired girl reassured her twin, but it didn't seem to work.

"What are you-?"

Without any warning, the midnight blue-haired girl brought her head onto her twin. Their foreheads touched and their bodies suddenly glowed. A pillar of light then appeared on them that rose above to the skies, which made Nepgear just stare in awe.

Not long after that, the pillar of light turned into dark purple. Nepgear assumed that something went wrong so she made a battle stance. Shortly after that, the dark purple pillar disappeared, with only the midnight blue-haired girl remained.

Nepgear just kept her stance just in case as she asked a question. "So… did your red twin disappear?"

The midnight blue-haired girl didn't reply as she just stared at her palms.

"No…"

Nepgear seemed to be confused. "What do you mean, no?"

The midnight blue-haired girl turned to Nepgear with a sad expression. "She lied to me… We didn't become one… She gave her memories to me so that I would remember everything."

Nepgear's eyes widened as she heard that. If she were going to assume how it went, then…

"So… you're the red one…? But your appearance…"

The midnight blue-haired girl swung her head. "No… because it was me who split up with her, my previous appearance was still before I was sealed… back when I was still the CPU of Planeptune."

"You were the CPU of Planeptune?!" Nepgear couldn't believe what she just heard.

The midnight blue-haired girl nodded. "Yes. I remember everything. I was the CPU of Planeptune, but I had an uncontrollable power that brought destruction whenever I used it. That's why I was sealed." She said as she was clenching her fists. "But right now, it seemed like I can control it even if just a bit, so I wouldn't worry about my powers going rampant anymore. "

"So… we're good now?"

The midnight blue-haired girl nodded. "Yes. By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves yet…"

"The name's Uzume. Tennouboshi Uzume." The midnight blue-haired girl introduced.

Nepgear surprised look on her face for a moment, which somehow confused Uzume, but then she returned to her normal composure afterward. "Ah, I'm Nepgear. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Uzume said as she offered her hand to Nepgear, in which she accepted and they shook hands. "If I may ask, during our fight earlier, you seemed to be in a hurry. Why is that?"

Nepgear made an "ah" expression as she heard the question. She then relayed to Uzume what she could remember just a few moments before arriving in this dimension, starting from when she picked the swirl console from an alleyway.

"…That swirl console… do you still have it…?" Uzume asked.

Nepgear noticed a sudden shift to seriousness in Uzume's tone. "I don't have it right now, but if I can return back to my dimension, maybe it's still there. Why do you ask though?"

Uzume wasn't sure if she should tell Nepgear that, but in order to reach her, or _their_ objective, she had no choice but to disclose that information.

"If… if what you said is true, then…" Uzume stared at Nepgear's eyes intently. "…The Planeptune you're governing right now… is the Planeptune where I was sealed."

Now that completely surprised Nepgear. "…Then, you're my predecessor CPU?"

"Mhm…" Uzume nodded. "…But I still need to confirm it."

Nepgear was somehow not glad to hear that. Because her predecessor CPU was aware of the unholy power that she was possessing could only mean that she was also aware what she had done.

Before the discussion could lead to that, Nepgear asked, "So… how can I go back to my dimension?"

"I can open up a portal that will lead to your dimension basing from your memories… so…" Uzume paused a little. What she was requesting to do wasn't really a noble job. "…You know what that means, right?"

Nepgear pondered about that for a moment. She really didn't want to share any of her memories because of 'that' incident, but there wasn't any other way to go back home.

"…Okay, but please don't look into unnecessary things. Just a fair warning." Nepgear said as she glared at Uzume.

Uzume just sighed at Nepgear's warning. Whatever Nepgear was trying to hide was none of her concern, since Uzume already knew that. Nepgear possessing 'that sword' could only mean one thing.

"Fair enough."

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune – Basilicom.

Inside a certain room in the Basilicom, a dark blue portal suddenly appeared. Few moments after that, Nepgear and Uzume stepped out of it and then the portal disappeared afterward. Nepgear looked around to see if they arrived at their destination correctly.

After looking around for a few minutes, she had a conclusion.

"I have a good news and a bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Nepgear asked as she turned to Uzume.

"Surprise me." Uzume answered with a smirk.

Nepgear chuckled a little. "Good news, it is." She said as she sat down on the bed. "We've indeed arrived in my dimension. This is my room as I remember it."

"Of course, it would be." Uzume proudly said. "And the bad news is?"

"The swirl console is missing." Nepgear said. She was pointing on the floor near the power socket but there was nothing on it. "It should be in here, but it's gone."

"Oh, is that so…" Uzume replied as if she knew it already. Actually, she was already aware of it the moment she stepped out of the portal because the first thing she laid her eyes to was the floor Nepgear was pointing at.

Nepgear raised an eyebrow. "You're going to believe me?"

"I know you're telling the truth." Uzume said as she shrugged. "Anyway, I guess this is our wake up call. It's nice meeting you, Nepgear." She then extended her hand to Nepgear.

"You too, Uzume." Nepgear then tried to shake hands with Uzume but her hand just passed through Uzume's, which surprised her. "What the…?"

Uzume retrieved her hand back and stared at it. "It seems like I don't have a physical form in this dimension." She said as she tried to touch other objects but the results were the same.

"What… happened to you…?" Nepgear asked, even though she wasn't expecting an answer from Uzume.

"Well, for one thing, I mentioned earlier that I was sealed." Uzume said as she was clenching her fists. "It seems like the seal was partly undone. That's why I can manifest like this."

Nepgear didn't get any of that, but one thing for sure, she wouldn't be able to touch Uzume in this dimension.

"Anyway, that's not a problem for me." Uzume said as and shrugged the current issue. "Being able to move freely like this is enough."

Nepgear somehow felt unpleasant as she heard Uzume's words. To her, it seemed like Uzume conscious even though she was sealed, but couldn't do anything at all. Not sleep, move, talk; nothing at all.

And Nepgear couldn't imagine how excruciating that feeling would be, and of course, she had no plans of getting a taste of that.

"Is that so…"

Uzume just waved the issue off her hands because Nepgear was getting too affected by it, and that was not on Uzume's plans. "Yeah, so don't worry about it anymore." She said. "If we're good now, I'm off to do some business."

Nepgear just nodded. "Yeah, thanks for bringing me back."

"Don't mention it." Uzume said and then she was covered in dark red mist and disappeared afterward.

Nepgear sighed and lied down on her bed. Those hours that she spent in the other dimension completely dried her out. She was about to close her eyes when she heard a knock on the door.

"Nepgear…? Are you asleep?"

Nepgear recognized that voice. She then sat up on her bed. "I am not, Histoire. Come in."

Shortly after that, the door opened and a small girl sitting on a floating tome entered the room. She then levitated towards Nepgear, "Are you okay?"

"I am. Why do you ask?" Nepgear was confused by Histoire's question.

"I was informed that your room was suddenly lit up about five minutes ago." Histoire said.

Nepgear raised an eyebrow. "…Five minutes ago…?"

That completely surprised Nepgear. Judging from what Histoire said, the light that she was talking about could be the one when she activated the swirl console and got transported to the other dimension. But that wasn't what surprised Nepgear. It was the fact that Histoire said that it happened five minutes ago.

To confirm her suspicions, Nepgear took her N-Gear and looked at the time. What Histoire said was right; about five minutes only had passed ever since she got transported to and back from the other dimension.

"…"

Nepgear wanted to evade the question but there was actually no benefit in doing so, and she decided to come clean with it.

"I don't know if you're going to believe me but… I just went to another dimension." Nepgear said.

Histoire's eyes widened after hearing that. It wasn't every day that she got to have a discussion about dimension travel… or even for decades.

"Hmm… I see." Histoire said.

"You believe what I said?"

Histoire tilted her head. "Huh? Oh, yes. I believe you." Histoire said as she smiled at Nepgear. "Dimension travel is not impossible, after all."

"Eh?"

That looked like a surprised Nepgear.

"Why do you look so surprised when you just experienced one earlier?" Histoire raised an eyebrow.

"Ah? Oh, that." Nepgear somehow had an awkward look on her face. "Well, I have no excuses…"

Histoire sighed. To her eyes, Nepgear seemed to be drained out. Especially when Histoire had a good look on Nepgear, particularly the black marks on the right half of her face, she could guess that something happened during those five minutes that Nepgear disappeared into another dimension.

"Did something happen there, Nepgear?" Histoire finally asked.

Nepgear sweat dropped. She couldn't just say that she met her predecessor CPU there, could she? Even Histoire wouldn't find that believable, after all.

"…Rather than something happened, I stayed there for more than five minutes." Nepgear said.

Though expecting that would surprise Histoire, it was actually the opposite. Histoire was just calm and composed after hearing that, as if she was already aware of it.

"Hmm, I see." Histoire replied with her fingers making a check under her chin.

"You don't look surprised at all."

"Well, you could say that I have an idea of how did that phenomenon happened." Histoire answered. "I think that what you just described earlier was a product of Special Relativity."

Nepgear somehow had no idea what that meant. "Special Relativity?"

"In definition, you could say that the events that happened at the same time for an observer occurred at different times for another."

Now that definitely flew past Nepgear. She had no idea what Histoire was talking about. Yes, she had a good knowledge of science but this one was on a different level for her. "Uh, in other words?"

Histoire could see that Nepgear was getting confused with their discussion, and so she tried to level down the conversation easier for Nepgear to understand.

"Hmmm, how should I say this…" Histoire mumbled as she rubbed her chin. "I don't know if I can explain it in a way that's easy to understand but, I'll try."

"The flow of time here, inside our world, has something to do with how fast our dimension moves." Histoire said.

That revelation blew Nepgear. "Our dimension moves?!"

"Yes, it does, though not in a way that it makes a very significant movement, and not in a way how things normally do." Histoire explained. "Not only that, dimensions do not reside very close to each other. You can say that they're separated in space-time continuum. You already know about the space-time continuum, right?"

Nepgear nodded. "Space is 3-dimensional and time is 1-dimensional, and the space-time continuum is a 4-dimensional object, right?"

"That's right. Each dimension has a coordinate. Ours is no exception." Histoire continued her explanation. "This is just my hypothesis, but in the space-time continuum that exists, our dimension and the dimension you were earlier lies inside and is separated by a certain 'distance' and that is…"

"The Time… the 1-dimensional plane, right?" Nepgear answered.

Histoire nodded. "Yes, but saying that sounds too easy when it actually isn't. The concept of 'time' in the continuum isn't the same as the one that normal people think about the time. That's why the flow of time between two dimensions can and can't be the same. It is affected by a lot of distortions, like Gravitational ones."

"I see…" Nepgear finally understood. While there were stuffs that she still couldn't understand, she mostly got the gist of the situation.

Histoire ended the discussion there. Dragging it would definitely confuse Nepgear more. "Well, that's most of it. I know that time was slower in that dimension, that's why your stay there didn't only just last for five minutes."

"And you look wasted. You should get some rest. I'll just ask how you ended up there next time." Histoire said as she headed for the door. "I'll see you later."

"Thanks, Histoire."

After that, Histoire left the room and Nepgear dropped down on the bed. She was feeling very tired, completely. A moment after, she stood up and took a good look on herself on the mirror.

"Histoire wasn't kidding."

Yep, Nepgear looked like hammered crap. Well, she fought two Uzume and released the cursed sword's power even for a moment earlier, after all. She was completely drained.

"Goodness… I need to take a bath."

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune – Forest.

In the middle of a forest in Planeptune, a tall castle could be found. It looked like an abandoned castle as there were leaves and roots crawling on the walls, and the walls itself seemed to be crumbling. Nonetheless, the castle stood still.

A girl with dark blue hair was walking towards the said castle. When she approached the door, she didn't bother opening it; scratch that, _she couldn't_ open it, but that didn't stop her from going inside. Instead, she just walked straight to it and passed through it like a ghost.

"…This thing is still intact even after all these years." She was a little bit amazed by the castle. Seemed like she was familiar around this building, else she wouldn't be impressed by how this castle was still standing despite the outer looked like it would collapse at any moment.

Not literally, of course.

The girl traversed inside the castle. Despite the interior looked like a maze, she knew where she was going as if she knew this place like the back of her hand. And of course, the place was filled with monsters, but nothing she couldn't handle.

After a few minutes of exterminating monsters, she reached the depths of the castle. She was specifically standing in front of a certain door. Nothing special when described physically but her eyes showed something different as if there was something invaluable inside.

"…"

Her right hand then touched the door… well, her hand just went past through it, but to her surprise, the door opened by itself, as if it recognized her presence. She raised her guard up for any unexpected events to occur, but nothing came towards her as the door fully opened.

She went inside the room and observed the interior. It looked like a living room of sorts, with unrecognizable paintings hanging on the walls. There were some sorts of windows but it didn't lead to the outside given that she was in the depths of the castle, and they were broken. There were cobwebs all over the place as a result of the place not maintained for a long time… or like forever.

"…"

She kneeled down in the middle of the room and closed her eyes. This was her trying to get a feel of her surroundings. What was her objective again? Nothing actually. She was just trying to get a good look on the new Planeptune and just ended in this place, that was all.

After a few minutes of sort of meditating, the girl heard a sound. It was a weak one but enough for her to hear and have her interrupt her meditation. The area was deafeningly silent that even the smallest sound would be easily heard.

"…Who goes there?" She asked. Her eyes ran around the room but she saw nothing aside from non-living things. It was as if she wasn't looking for something, but _someone_ because the sound she heard wasn't just anything.

It was a voice.

"…**Ggnngghrrgghh…"**

Sadly, the voice she could hear was incomprehensible. It was like the one producing that voice had lesser intelligence, or wasn't just aware of what it was doing.

"…Let's liven up things a little, shall we?"

She put both her palms on the floor and released her own energy to her surroundings. The room was filled with dark red mist for a short while before a voice again echoed inside the room.

"**Who dares disturb my sleep?"**

Instinctively, the girl stopped whatever she was doing. The mist disappeared and the atmosphere returned to normal.

"...Oh, I thought it was some sealed beast that was grunting from somewhere... turns out it was a person." The girl said as she rose up to her feet.

**"You... you're not human, are you?" ** The voice asked. **"No human dared to speak with me after hearing my voice."**

The girl chuckled a little. "...Well, you could say that again." She said as she walked around the room. "...By the way, can you see me? Because I can't see you."

There was a gust of wind that passed by the girl before the hidden entity spoke again. **"I... I don't have a physical body, and I can't see you as well, but I can feel your immense power."**

"...Is that so...? That's too bad, then." She said as she stopped walking. "...Who are you? Why are you in this place?"

**"You should introduce yourself first if you're going to ask someone their name."**

The girl frowned. That was a comeback that she wasn't expecting... or did she?

"...I'm Uzume. Uzume Tennouboshi."

There was silence after the girl named Uzume introduced herself. She had no idea what the other entity was thinking or what face was it making because she couldn't see it. All that she knew was that her name was known to it. Why else would it fall silent if that wasn't the case?

**"...You... are you for real...?" **The entity finally spoke after a few minutes of silence. It's tone wasn't completely normal at all. It sounded nervous or something like that.

Uzume crossed her arms and leaned on the wall. "...Well, aside from the pressure I gave you earlier, I have nothing else to prove..." She brought her right hand forward and dark red mist escaped from it. "...Why the shocked tone though? You sounded like you know me or something."

**"Because I do know that name... that name only."**

That raised a lot of question marks above Uzume's head. While it wasn't odd for someone to remember her because she was once a CPU, she wouldn't have been surprised if people didn't remember her, given the period of time of her absence. It wouldn't be unusual if people forgot her completely.

Yes, what confused her was someone did remember her. What was more, by name only.

"...What do you mean by that?" Uzume asked. No point of pondering about it herself.

There was a short silence before the voice spoke once more.

**"That name... belongs to my predecessor."**

Uzume's eyes widened after hearing that statement. She couldn't believe it. If what that voice said was true, then that would mean...

"...You were a CPU too?"

**"Yes... I am. And I learned the story of a CPU whose power was so unstable that she..." **The voice suddenly stopped talking.

"...She what?" Uzume asked.

The voice didn't reply. It just went silent. Uzume tried asking once more but it didn't reply.

Even though Uzume knew what the voice was trying to say. She was well aware of what she did.

"...Well, if you don't want to talk about it, that's completely fine with me." Uzume said as she shrugged the topic off. "...Why not just tell me your name? I gave you mine so it's your turn."

This time, the voice replied.

**"I'm Uranus. The CPU of Planeptune after your era."**

"...Uranus, huh? Nice to meet you." Uzume said, in which Uranus replied with the same words. "...So what's your deal? Why are you in this place? And why don't you have a physical form?"

**"It's because of my... _our _failure."**

That somehow confused Uzume. "..._Our_ failure? What failure?"

**"We... or specifically, I and the other CPUs of my generation, failed to overcome the Deity of Sin. Our bonds were too fragile."**

Uzume's eyes widened again in surprise. "...No shit, the Deity of Sin again...? That thing didn't know when to give up."

**"Didn't? What do you mean...?"**

Uzume walked to the other side of the room before speaking once more. "...It's as you guessed. In this era, the Deity of Sin was defeated. She's gone for good."

**"So the CPUs' bonds of this era were that strong to defeat her, huh?"**

That statement made Uzume chuckle, as if Uranus just said something ridiculous. Well, she did just say something that fit the description, to Uzume, at least.

"...You seriously... believe that cringe thing?" Uzume said while trying to suppress her laughter, but to no avail.

**"What... you're saying that... the power of bonds can't defeat the Deity of Sin?"**

Uzume tried to catch her breathing but she had a hard time doing so. She eventually managed to, though it took her a few minutes to calm herself down. She could feel her sides hurting from laughter even though she had no physical form in this dimension.

"...Let's be real here, shall we?" Uzume walked to the other side of the room after composing herself. "...Where and how did you come up with that solution?"

**"That's..."**

It seemed like Uranus couldn't remember where that information came from, and Uzume knew that. Her tone was filled with uncertainty, after all.

"...Well, not that it matters." Uzume said as she sighed in disappointment. It would be better if she knew where that solution came from, so she decided to pry on it a little further to force it out of her. "...Anyway, going back to reality, do you honestly think that something as cliched as bonds could defeat evil?"

**"I... but if the True Goddess could do it, then-"**

Before Uranus could finish what she wanted to say, Uzume interrupted. "...Bullshit. If the True Goddess managed that, then it wouldn't have been your nor Nepgear's problem anymore."

**"Nepgear...? You met the Planeptune's CPU Candidate?"**

Uzume sighed. "...You must've been asleep for too long." She said. "...She's the CPU of Planeptune now."

**"What? So her sister retired already...?"**

Uzume was silent. It seemed like Uranus had no idea of what had transpired on the outside world. She was having thoughts if she should tell Uranus but wondered if there was any point in doing so.

So she decided not to tell Uranus anything.

"...I'll leave that to your imagination."

**"You're not telling me something, are you?"**

Uzume smirked, though she wished Uranus could've seen it. "...Like I said, I'll leave that to your imagination." She then headed for the door. "...I'm going now. I'll see you next time, if chance permits it." Uzume then disappeared to thin air after passing through the door.

Uranus was left wondering what could have happened outside but alas, she had no way of finding answers herself.

**~o~O~o~**

Planeptune - Basilicom. Two days later.

Nepgear woke up from her sleep. She was greeted by her ceiling in her unlit room. It was still around six in the morning, but she didn't feel sleepy anymore.

Why? That would be saved for later.

Nepgear sat up on her bed and stretched her arms upward. Even though she could still feel her body a little heavy, she felt refreshed. That heavy feeling must've been the cursed sword's effect on her body. She did injure her neck with it, after all.

She pulled the curtains up and sunlight entered the room. It felt like forever during her stay in the other dimension.

"Another day, huh...?"

She headed to the bathroom and took a shower. After more than half an hour, she got out of the bath and changed into her usual hooded sailor uniform. She really didn't want anyone to see those marks on her face. After she finished prepping herself, she heard a knock on the door.

"Nepgear? Are you awake?"

Nepgear recognized that voice. "Yes, I'm already up. You can come in, Histoire."

The door then opened afterwards and a small girl sitting on a floating tome entered the room. She was the one named Histoire, the so-called Oracle of Planeptune whose purpose was to record the history of Planeptune... or the whole Gamindustri.

"How are you feeling?" Histoire asked with a concerned look.

Nepgear just gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine. Thanks for worrying." She said as she waved her hand at Histoire. "Sorry for leaving all the work to you yesterday."

Histoire's eyes widened in surprise, much to Nepgear's confusion. She didn't know why Histoire looked so surprised because as far as she knew, there was nothing sort of unusual with what she just said.

Yes, to Nepgear, at least.

"No, Nepgear. You were asleep for two straight days." Histoire said. Now that completely shocked Nepgear. Sleeping for two whole straight days didn't seem to be a healthy thing to do but she could understand why that happened to her.

The cursed sword. That thing's power sapped a lot of her share energy.

"Is... is that so...?" Nepgear could only rub her temples. That was a lot of time wasted for work, and Histoire could guess that just by looking at Nepgear's face.

Histoire just made a weak smile. "I don't mind taking your work for a while. Your body seem to be in a not-so-good condition from the way I see it." Histoire said as she tapped Nepgear's shoulder. "Well, just from the marks you had on your body, I could already tell."

"I'm sorry, Histoire... I just did something outrageous... no one would have expected me to do..."

Histoire frowned. "Nepgear, I know. That was already a long time ago and no one would have-" Before Histoire could finish what she was about to say, Nepgear interrupted.

"No, Histoire. That's not what I'm talking about." Nepgear said as she swung her head. "When I was in Lastation, before I lost my consciousness... I... desired for more power."

"But Nepgear, everyone does want to gain more power for different purposes."

Nepgear swung her head again. "No... I mean, yes, but that's not it." Nepgear replied as she turned away. "I wasn't aware of it at first, but when I was in another dimension, I finally realized why my body is like this." She said as she pulled her hood backwards and revealed her face with black marks on the right half going down to her neck and ultimately down to her body.

"What are you trying to say, Nepgear?" Histoire asked, but she had an idea or two about it already. Actually, the moment she saw the marks on Nepgear's face, she knew that the cursed sword had something to do with it. Else, why would she have something filled with malice in her body despite it containing something as pure as share energy?

"My body's condition... the black marks on my body... the power that I acquired... it's all because of Gehaburn."

Gehaburn. That was the name of the sword that took the lives of the CPUs to defeat the abominable Deity of Sin. Nepgear had that cursed sword with her, as a proof that the lives of her sister and her friends were never lost in vain.

Histoire was about to say something but her voice didn't come out.

"And my blood... is also in that sword."

Now, Histoire was sure of her hypothesis. Actually, that was the only conclusion she could draw since she was aware what Gehaburn could do. And with what Nepgear just said, she knew that the cause of the black marks on Nepgear's body was because of her injuring herself with Gehaburn. She could only guess what pushed Nepgear into doing that feat, and that would be Kei's death. She probably blacked out when she witnessed how Kei died resulted by an extreme shock and she lost recollection of it.

"Is that so...?" Was all Histoire could reply.

"You don't sound so surprised." Nepgear said with slight annoyance.

Histoire just waved her hand as a response. "Let's say I have my hunches." Histoire said. She then patted Nepgear's head. "But... please refrain from using that sword again, unless the situation really calls for it. It's affecting your body more than you imagine."

Nepgear reached for Histoire's hand and lightly removed it from her head. "I know, Histoire. I know..."

Histoire didn't sound so convinced with that answer, but she didn't pry on it any further. Nepgear had done so much for this world, and she had been through the worst times one could ever imagine. "As long as you're aware of it, then that's good enough for me." She said as she gave Nepgear a smile. "You don't have to worry about work for a while, I'll take care of it. Go take a rest or do things that you want. You've earned it."

"...Okay, thank you , Histoire." Nepgear said as she headed for the door. "But don't hesitate to call me if something happens. The issue with The New Order is still not resolved."

Histoire nodded. "Don't worry. I've dispatched IF and MarvelousAQL to gather information."

"That's reassuring." Nepgear said as she breathed in relief. If it was IF and MarvelousAQL doing dangerous missions, she could trust them. "Okay, I'll step out for a bit."

"Take care, Nepgear." Histoire said before Nepgear headed out of the Basilicom.

**~o~O~o~**

Lowee - Forest.

The forest in Lowee was somewhat snowing. As if it wasn't like that most... or all of the time. Lowee was known for being an all-time snowing nation, and nobody knew why it was like that. Maybe because it was located in the northern part of Gamindustri? No one could answer that. All the people knew that Lowee was like that ever since it became a nation.

Going back to the said forest, there was a girl who was jumping from tree to tree, seemingly in a hurry. She was in the inner depths of the forest and very far from the city so it'd take a while before she could get out.

Why was she trying to get out?

"...Damn it, what's going on here?!" She whispered to herself as she was leaping from branch to branch. She was breathing heavily, partly due to fatigue caused by the freezing weather, and partly due to she had been jumping for a while now.

As she kept on leaping, her phone rang, which made her stop on a tree branch. She took her phone out and saw the caller's name in it. 'Marvy' was shown in the phone's screen. "Hello? Marvy?

_"Ah, IF. What's your situation there?"_

Yes, the girl was named IF. She was a guild agent for years now, and she was currently the one who was in the middle of the forest in Lowee. There was no single person in the Guild who didn't know her name.

"Very terrible. The monsters are... acting aberrant." She said as she tried to catch her breathing.

_"How terrible?"_

IF turned around. The monsters she was talking about was marching towards her direction, and that very same direction was headed towards Lowee. "The monsters... are heading towards Lowee... as if they were attracted to something."

_"Is that so...?" _Marvy didn't sound so surprised, and IF noticed that.

"You don't sound so surprised." IF said as she resumed her escape. The monsters were moving slow so it'd take a while before they reach Lowee but the numbers were something she couldn't take head on. She just hoped that they would be able to make a decent plan to repel the monsters with the little time they had, that was why she wasn't wasting any second staying in this forest.

_"Believe me or not, I'm on the opposite side of you, and the monsters here are acting the same way you described it."_

IF's eyes widened in surprise. Now this was something she didn't expect. At this rate, they were going to get flanked on both sides. They would need more than just numbers because they would be split into two if the attack happened at the same time.

"You've got to be shitting me."

* * *

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND there we go! Chapter 3 is done! I promised you guys that it wouldn't take 2020 before I update, so yeah, I did my best.**

**I've cleared a little bit of my work before I go to vacation that's why I had the time to write. Good thing I had things laid down already for this chapter so putting them into words wasn't hard.**

**Anyway, I don't know what will happen next year (On my work) but I'll try to write during my lunch break (I just hope I wouldn't have schedules during lunch break).**

**So, how did you like the chapter? Leave your comments/reactions in the reviews~ :)**

**Also, you guys should probably know how the story will go on after this chap, but don't worry, there would be a lot of surprises and twists for this one :)**

**Until next time, see ya guys~ HAPPY NEW YEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!**


	4. Calamity Averted

**Hi guys! It's time for Chapter 4!**

**I don't know if it's just me, but the archive seems to be having less and less people in it? Just my imagination, I guess.**

**Hope you guys haven't forgotten me yet XD**

**Sorry for not updating for a while. If you dropped by my facebook page (which is pretty much dead lmao), I explained there why. Well, long story short, my right middle finger has an injury, which my nurse brother told me that it could be a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. With all of the stuff about COVID-19 everywhere, I can't go to a hospital/clinic to get it checked, so there's that.**

**Anyway, I have nothing to say more other than my gratitude to anyone who's still following this story!**

**Onto the chapter now, Enjoy!**

* * *

Planeptune - City.

Nepgear was walking down the streets of Planeptune. With her hood on, she hoped that nobody would recognize her but alas, the people still did. She was still getting greetings from the people despite her face being hidden under her hood, so she had no choice but to greet them back even with just revealing half of her face.

"..."

The streets were so peaceful despite the destruction of Lastation. It was giving her a weird feeling of deja vu. Well, going back to the other day, she was also doing the same thing before she got transported to another dimension.

"...Goodness, I hope that won't happen again..."

Yep, she hoped that she wouldn't go to another dimension suddenly. Once would be a good experience, second would be a bad one. It was stressful, to her at the very least.

After walking aimlessly for about an hour, she stopped by the guild. As she entered, she noticed that the staff were somewhat restless, and adventurers were coming and going at a very fast pace. She wondered what was happening so she decided to approach the receptionist.

"Good morning." Nepgear greeted as she stopped by the reception. "Things are a little bit rowdy here; what's going on?"

The receptionist jolted a little as she heard Nepgear's voice, and another jolt when she saw Nepgear's hooded face. She was of course, nervous, and Nepgear could see that. Though she had no idea if she was nervous from seeing her face or by the current situation; Nepgear didn't bother knowing.

"A-Ah, Lady Nepgear...!" The receptionist was about to say something but she hesitated. To her mind, she didn't need to bother Nepgear about this stuff, but another thought was telling her that she should tell the CPU about this.

And yes, of course, Nepgear knew that as well. She wasn't the CPU of Planeptune for years for nothing, after all.

"...I want you to tell me." Nepgear ordered in a serious tone. She didn't really want to do that but if she wouldn't, who knows if the receptionist would spill the beans.

With that said, the receptionist jolted once more, but she complied with the order. She couldn't disobey the CPU, after all.

"...T...There seems t-to be a commotion going on in L-Lowee..." The receptionist stuttered between her words.

Nepgear raised an eyebrow. That didn't tell her anything at all. "What commotion...?"

"The monsters... are abnormally marching towards their borders..."

Nepgear gasped a little after hearing that news. "...Borders? Plural?"

The receptionist nodded nervously. "Y-Yes... in all directions... We're sending out adventurers to Lowee for reinforcements as fast as we can, and as many as we can, but we don't have much time..."

Nepgear bit her thumbnail as she heard that. Why in heavens didn't she get informed about this? Or rather, why the oracle of Lowee didn't contact her, or even Histoire. Surely even if she just informed Histoire, Nepgear would immediately know about it because for sure, Histoire would immediately inform her about such things.

"..."

Well, Nepgear could only think of one thing. And that thing was the most obvious one she and the people involved in that _incident._

"Please keep on doing what you can. I'll head over to Lowee's Basilicom." Nepgear said and dashed out of the Guild without waiting for the receptionist's reply.

As soon as Nepgear got out, she immediately transformed and flew up to the skies, but shortly after that...

"...Ngh!"

Her chest felt a very strong pain for a moment that robbed her of her breathing at the same time which made her halt. She tried to catch her breathing, and fortunately, she managed to.

"...What... the hell... was that...?" She asked herself but alas, no one was able to answer her question.

As she was catching her breathing, her comms suddenly rang. She then checked who was calling and found out that it was Histoire.

"...She must've been informed just now..."

Nepgear answered the call. "I know, Histoire. I'm heading to Lowee now."

_"Ah, I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it saves me the time to explain."_ Histoire replied through the line. Nepgear could agree with what she said. _"I just got informed by the guild about it. I know I can't stop you from going but please be careful and don't overexert yourself. Your body is still not in very good condition."_

Nepgear smiled a little. "Thank you for worrying. Just to be sure, Mina didn't tell you anything about this?"

_"No... this is the first time I heard of it. Probably they just got the wind of the monsters' activity recently."_

"Is... is that so?" It would be great if that was the case; Nepgear hoped. But her thoughts were saying the otherwise. "Alright, then. I'll be heading to Lowee now."

_"Take care of yourself, Nepgear."_

"Mhm..." Nepgear then cut the line. She then looked towards the direction where Lowee was located and clenched her fists. "What the hell is going on now...? Mina should be the one informed of this before Planeptune..."

Without having her question asked, she flew to Lowee at full speed.

**~o~O~o~**

Lowee - Basilicom.

Inside Lowee's Basilicom, the staff was moving non-stop as if they were in a panic, but that wasn't really the case. It was just, the nation was in a state of calamity due to the reports of the Guild that a herd of monsters from outside Lowee's walls was heading towards all of their borders.

In the middle of the crowd, there was someone giving out orders. That was why despite things looked so messy, nobody was loitering around. Everyone had their own roles to fulfill.

"Ms. Mina, the citizens from the western border has been completely evacuated."

The lady named Mina, who was wearing a graduation outfit of sorts, was the one guiding the people in the Basilicom. Through her orders, she managed to keep everything in place. She had been doing that for years, after all.

"Is that so? That's good." Mina replied with a sigh of relief, but the problem, of course, wasn't solved yet. "Is the eastern border not fully evacuated yet?"

Sadly, the staff who reported to Mina swung her head. "Not yet, but we already dispatched additional hunters to help the citizens evacuate."

"Good." That was one weight off her shoulders. "I know I'm asking too much as we're totally outmanned here but, I want all of the hunters and adventurers from the Guild to defend our borders.

The staff nodded before leaving. Mina then immediately headed her office, well, formerly _someone's_ office. As soon as she arrived at her destination, she opened the door and entered the room. She locked the door afterward to prevent anyone from getting in.

"..."

She looked around. There were portraits of someone and framed pictures of three people on the walls and on top of desks, respectively. The people in it were completely familiar to her, well, familiar would be an understatement. Mina spent a lot of her life with them. Saying that she spent all of her life with them would be incorrect since it had been years since they were gone.

"...Huh?"

She didn't realize that her tears started to fall from her eyes as she stared at the pictures. Without even thinking twice, she immediately wiped her tears. It wasn't really the time to be reminiscing memories because the nation she swore to protect with her life was being threatened.

"...I can't be like this right now." Mina then hit her cheeks to compose herself up. She had her own duty that only she could perform... well, except for another one, but she'd rather not seek help from _her_.

"Let's do this." Mina then headed towards the bookshelf on the right side of the room and pushed a book inwards. All of a sudden, the bookshelf moved and revealed a hidden room. Mina didn't hesitate and went inside the said room.

Inside the said room, there was an artifact that took the shape of a power button and was floating above a short pillar. It was called a share crystal, where the share energy of the nation was stored, or was gathered, whichever of the two.

Technically, that is. Why?

As everyone knew, only one CPU remained the Gamindustri. And that was the CPU of Planeptune, Nepgear. That only meant that Lowee had no CPU governing over it. But the share crystal still remained intact. Why again? Well, the nation was still gathering shares, but not to the point it used to be. The shares getting expended were faster than the rate of recovery. This was the result of the divided faith of the people in the nation. Because some people could never accept Nepgear as their CPU, while the others had no choice but to put their faith in her. Only Lowee had this divided faith of the people because of the strong attachment of the people towards their CPU. That was what caused this phenomenon, and Mina couldn't do something about it.

Or rather, she didn't want to do something about it. And Nepgear didn't want that either. They let the people decided who they would put their faiths into.

But what did that have to do with Lowee's current situation? Long story short, the share crystal was acting as divine protection for Lowee which was the one driving the monsters away from the city. The same could be said for the other three, well, _two_ nations. And yes, the reason why the monsters were marching towards Lowee was the divine protection of Lowee was getting weaker. The monsters were getting attracted by the people inside.

"...This is the only way..." Mina murmured under her breath as she stared at the floating share crystal that was gradually losing its bright. Her hand slowly reached for the crystal while completely being unaware of her surroundings. Out of desperation, her mind was filled only with the thoughts of saving Lowee.

As her index finger was about to touch the crystal, somebody grabbed her arm, which snapped her out of her thoughts.

"What the hell are you trying to do?!"

Mina gasped as she heard that question that was filled with anger. She turned her head to her right and saw Nepgear with her hood on and an angry look on her face. She must've really spaced out too much that she didn't even notice her enter the room.

"...N-Nepgear..." Was all Mina could say.

Nepgear pulled Mina and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me about this situation? Or why didn't you even reach for Histoire? Why?!" Nepgear asked while shaking Mina. "Am I really that unreliable? Or did you think I never cared for Lowee?"

Mina was speechless. She could admit that a part of what Nepgear said was true, while the other was just her ego thinking that she should just do everything by herself.

Nepgear realized that Mina wouldn't be able to answer and just sighed. She then pulled her hood back and revealed her face to Mina.

"Wha-?" Mina gasped as she saw Nepgear's face. She wondered what happened to Nepgear but judging from the previous events, she could only conclude that this was the cause of the ordeal in Lastation.

Nepgear cracked a little smile. "So you haven't lost your ability to speak yet." Though Mina still did not reply and just narrowed her eyes as she stared at Nepgear.

"...You just don't want to talk to me." Nepgear added. Mina then looked away from her as she embraced herself. Nepgear was so spot on how Mina was acting, and of course, Mina herself knew that she couldn't fool Nepgear.

With that, Nepgear sighed in disappointment. "...At the very least, talk to Histoire." Nepgear said as she released Mina from her hands. "I know that you still hate me, and I know you will never forgive me, but don't take it out on Histoire."

"Ah..." Was all Mina could reply as she turned her attention back to Nepgear, but Nepgear was already facing the share crystal.

Nepgear took her PDA out from her pocket and contacted Histoire. After a few moments, Histoire picked the call up. _"Hello, Nepgear. Are you in Lowee now?"_

"Yes, I'm in the Basilicom right now and Mina's here with me." Nepgear said. She heard a small gasp from the other side of the call but Nepgear didn't bother pointing that out as they had better things to worry about. "Can you establish a secure link from our Share reserves to Lowee's?"

**""What?!"" **Both Mina and Histoire replied at the same time.

_"Nepgear, are you...?"_

Before Histoire could finish what she was about to say, Nepgear spoke, "Yes, Histoire. Lowee's share reserves are almost out and I'm sure the divine protection of the nation is already gone. That's why the monsters are attracted to the city." Though that might have been the case, there was still something other than that in Nepgear's mind, and she decided not to disclose it to Histoire nor to Mina. She still had to confirm it, though. "And I want you to transfer enough shares to bring the divine protection up."

_"You do know that we wouldn't be able to restore the divine protection until Lowee has enough shares, right?"_

Nepgear nodded. "I know. That's why I will go out there and help the hunters and the adventurers to defend Lowee."

_"But then, you-"_

Histoire was once again interrupted by Nepgear. She knew what Histoire was thinking, but that wasn't the real issue here. "Don't ask any more questions, Histoire. Just do what I say. We can't keep the divine protection down for too long."

With that said, Histoire gave up on trying to argue sense with Nepgear. _"Okay, I'll do it, but be very careful, okay? Your body is not on a really good condition to take on a fight."  
_

"I can handle myself." Nepgear replied and then ended the call. Mina was dumbfounded with the conversation that just happened in front of her and was left speechless. Actually, she was contemplating what she would have done if she didn't feed her ego, but then again, no one could ever just forget what happened during _that incident_.

Nepgear turned back to Mina, but the oracle just looked away at her. She frowned a little from that reaction. "...Look, I know you don't want to talk to me, but if you have time to waste, contact IF and Marvy and tell them to go to the Guild, but don't tell them that I called them." She said and then headed for the exit.

Before exiting the room, Nepgear spoke once more, "...I know you'll do the right thing, Mina. Don't be like me." Nepgear then went out of the room.

As soon as Nepgear left, Mina fell down on her knees. Her legs lost its strength as if she was relieved when Nepgear left the room. Mina never knew that she was this afraid of Nepgear. Was it because of her appearance?

"..."

She tried to convince herself that it was because of those black marks from Nepgear's face. Those marks were emitting some kind of malevolence, at the very least Mina could feel it. She wondered what happened to Nepgear since she wasn't like that the last time she saw her.

"...Was it because of Lastation's destruction?" While she was sure that it was because of Lastation's doom, she had no idea what actually happened to Nepgear there, and of course, she didn't bother asking; neither did she want to. Whatever was Nepgear up to, she didn't give two cares about it.

Or so she thought.

"...This is not the time for thinking about useless things." Mina said as she hit her cheeks and composed herself up. Though her legs were still a little wobbly, she managed to stand up on her two feet. She didn't waste any time and immediately contacted IF using her phone.

After a few moments, the call was picked up. _"Hello? Ms. Mina?"_

"Ah, IF good timing. Where are you right now?"

She could hear IF's heavy breathing from the phone and wondered if she was on the run. "I'm on my way back to Lowee from the west... Are the civilians evacuated yet?"

"The western border is completely evacuated. We're working on the rest." Mina answered. "We don't have much time, so I'll cut to the chase. I want you to go to the Guild immediately."

_"Why's that?"_

Mina left the room before answering IF's question. "There's someone you know who wants to meet you there. I can't tell you who she is but don't worry, she's not hostile at the very least."

_"She? At the very least? That's not really reassuring."_

"Believe me or not, we have the same thoughts, but she can help us in this crisis." Mina said. "Tell MarvelousAQL to go to the Guild too. This person wanted to meet her as well."

IF sighed from the other side of the call. _"Alright, I'll trust you on this one."_

"Thank you." Mina said and the call was cut. Mina sighed in relief. She hoped that this relief would continue on, though she really couldn't say it as she might jinx it later. Still, she could only hope that Lowee would overcome this problem.

**~o~O~o~**

Lowee - Guild.

The Guild was filled with lots of people coming and going. With the current situation of the nation, it was to be expected. Every adventurer and hunter was joining in defending their beloved country.

Amidst the crowd, IF could barely be seen trying to get past through it. She was looking for a certain someone who wanted to meet her. From Mina's description earlier, that person was someone IF knew. It couldn't be vaguer than that.

"...Yeah, as if I don't know a lot of people." IF mumbled under her breath as she finally got past through the crowd and arrived at a spacious area. She looked around the crowd to see if she spotted someone she knew. Well, actually, she could see a lot of faces she knew, but she was particularly looking for someone who had a strong impact.

As her eyes were pinned to the crowd, someone tapped her shoulder from behind, which made her jolt a little. "Eek-!"

IF immediately turned around to see who just tapped her. There, she saw a girl wearing a hooded sailor uniform, in which the uniform was something she was very familiar with and that surprised her.

"What are you-?!" Before she could finish her sentence, the girl shut IF's mouth by putting her finger on IF's lips.

That action seemed to have convinced IF to not speak loudly anymore. The hooded girl released IF's lips.

"What are you doing here...?" IF asked, though she realized it already right after she saw the hooded girl in front of her. Mina's description was 'someone she knew' and 'can't tell who she is'. Personally, for IF, there could only be one person that would fit.

"...Nepgear?"

Yes, it was Nepgear, obviously.

"...It's nice to see you again, Ms. IF." Nepgear replied with a smile while half of her face was covered by the hood of her clothes.

"Don't Ms. IF me!" IF unintentionally raised her voice which caught the attention of other people. As she realized what she just did, she turned to the crowd and apologized at them before turning back to Nepgear. "You know you're unwanted here, right?!"

Nepgear frowned a little. "...It's been a long time since we saw each other and this is how you treat me..." Nepgear said which gave IF some chills down her spine. "That aside, what you said is right, that's why I called you and Marvy."

IF didn't say and just glared at her but Nepgear just sighed. "...Meet me outside at the back when Marvy arrives. I want to have a private conversation with you two, but don't tell her that it was I who called you both." Without further ado, Nepgear left the Guild, leaving a confused IF.

IF just sighed. There was no use in worrying about Nepgear being in Lowee when the whole nation was in crisis. In fact, she was kind of glad that Nepgear was here since they could definitely use her strength to defend the nation against the threat of the monsters.

"...That aside, where is Marvy now anyway?" IF unconsciously said out loud, in which she didn't know that there was someone already walking towards her from behind.

"I'm here, IF."

IF jolted as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Deja vu, she just had this feeling earlier. IF quickly turned around and saw a busty orange-haired girl with a music note pupils wearing a tight, single buttoned shirt which didn't somehow fit her as her cleavage were visible. She had a red ribbon tied around the collar of her shirt and one piece of a headset on her left ear.

"Now that's a rare reaction, coming from you."

IF sighed. "You'll know very soon why, Marvy." She said as she rubbed her temples.

Yes, the person who just approached IF was named Marvy. The other person that Nepgear wanted to meet.

"I'm sure I will." Marvy said with a smug look. "Anyway, why did you call me here? We ain't got a lot of time goofing around here."

IF started to walk to the exit and signaled Marvy to follow her. "...We're going to meet someone that can help us in this crisis... though I already met her earlier."

"Who?" Marvy asked as she followed IF towards the exit.

IF opened the door that was leading outside before answering her question. "You'll find out soon enough."

The two of them then exited the vicinity and headed to the back. As soon as they arrived at their destination, they saw Nepgear leaning on a wall with her hood on and was meddling with her phone. IF called her without hesitation.

"Hey, we're here." IF said as she approached Nepgear.

Marvy was still confused about the identity of the person, though what she was wearing was somehow familiar to her. Nepgear turned to them, revealing only half of her face. That somehow gave Marvy an idea about her identity but she didn't jump to any conclusions.

"IF, who's this person?" Marvy asked as she wanted to confirm her suspicions.

IF turned to Marvy with a hesitant look on her face, which somehow confused her. "She... she's-" IF was about to speak but Nepgear stopped her.

"I'll do that myself, IF." Nepgear said. The two of them then turned their attention to Nepgear.

A few moments after that, Nepgear pulled down her hood, revealing her face. Both IF and Marvy gasped in surprise as they saw her face. That surprise was both shock and confusion.

"Wha-? Nepgear?!" Marvy sweatdropped as she stepped back a little. She was feeling intense malice coming from Nepgear even though Nepgear wasn't directing it towards them. It was as if that malice was directed to somewhere else, avoiding both her and IF.

IF reacted the same way as Marvy as she didn't expect this turnover of events. "What happened... to you?" She asked.

"This... is the result of my desperation and failures." Nepgear smiled weakly at them. The two somehow felt sorry for the CPU. They couldn't imagine the suffering she went through and was going through right now. And of course, they didn't want to feel that either nor want to touch that subject for that matter.

IF and Marvy could just stare at Nepgear for a while. Nepgear realized that they wouldn't be able to have a conversation if that continued, she decided to drop the subject. "Enough about that. Let's go to the main topic as to why I called you both here."

The two jolted a little but that gave them the chance to compose themselves. "We're listening."

Now that they were finally onto their main topic, Nepgear cleared her throat before speaking, "Okay, here's the plan. You might've not heard Ms. IF say it earlier, Marvy, but you're probably aware of it already, I'm sort of unwelcome here in Lowee. That's why I can't show my face to anyone."

"But, you're okay showing yourself to us?" Marvy interjected.

Nepgear weakly smiled. "Because I know the two of you know which to prioritize." She answered, but then dropped the current subject about herself immediately. "While that's the case for me, that doesn't mean I can't help you. As we're speaking, Histoire is working towards connecting Planeptune's share reserves to Lowee so we can bring the divine protection up."

IF's eyes widened a little. Marvy had no idea about what they were talking about, but IF, who had been with the CPUs far longer than any human was, understood what that could bring forth to Nepgear. "But... if you do that, then you'll-"

"Do not concern yourself over trivial things, Ms. IF." Nepgear interrupted IF as she knew what she was going to say. Marvy didn't need to hear it, nor they even need to worry about it. "Anyway, that said, Mina is also on board with this and is helping Histoire. While they're doing that, we will need to keep the borders locked down and try to keep as many monsters out of Lowee."

"But... you said that you're not welcomed here, right? How can you join the others?" Marvy asked.

Nepgear expected that question, and so she elaborated her plan further. "I won't." Nepgear answered. That raised several question marks above IF's and Marvy's head, and Nepgear could almost see that, literally. She then pointed at the tall tower in the center of the city that could be considered the tallest one. "See that tower? I will be staying up there and defend the air."

Both Marvy and IF then made an 'Oh!' expression. That was indeed the good plan since there were only a select few adventurers that could shoot enemies in the air. And with Nepgear, they could defend the air along with her not getting seen by people.

"That's a good plan." IF said as she nodded, but then she swung her head afterward. "Actually, that's the only plan we can go with."

Marvy didn't have a comment on that since she couldn't think of anything better. Nepgear was glad that they were in agreement. "I will still try to assist you guys from up there against ground enemies if it ever comes to that but, I'd be glad if you could keep that from happening."

Both Marvy and IF nodded in response. It seems like there was no room for discussions anymore.

"Alright, let's get a move on. I'll be heading to that tower now. You two do what you have to do." Without waiting for a reply, Nepgear started to run towards the said tower.

The two of them could only stare at Nepgear. They had the same thoughts running in their mind regarding Nepgear.

"...I... I am aware of what happened in Lastation... and I know it was a very big deal but... was that the only thing that made Nepgear like that?" Marvy asked nervously. Since she managed to talk normally earlier when they were in a strategy meeting, now that it was over, her nervousness came back. That ominous feeling that was coming from Nepgear returned to her.

And of course, IF was no different. "Y...Your guess is as good as mine..." She said. "A-Anyway, let's just get to the plan. We can't waste any more time."

"R-Right..."

**~o~O~o~**

In the streets of Lowee, Nepgear was running towards the center where a very tall tower was located. The hoodie of her outfit was covering her face so no one would recognize her, and it was proven effective. One thing was because there were few to no people loitering around as most of the civilians evacuated already. The only ones that she was passing by were hunters and adventurers.

She arrived at her destination without any interruptions. Not really a good thing, per se, because of the current crisis in Lowee, but she was glad that the building was empty. That way, nobody would question her entering without any verification of sorts.

She looked around her to see if there were people around her. After verifying that the place was deserted, she transformed and quickly headed for the roof. As she landed on top, she immediately scouted the borders using the virtual scope of her gunblade. From up there, she could see the monsters nearing the borders, and from her estimation, it wouldn't take them a long time before making contact with the adventurers.

"...About fifteen minutes, or less than that." Nepgear mumbled as she finished scouting all the borders. She couldn't estimate the number of monsters from each direction but that didn't give her a hard time making a decision on where to defend first.

"...I should start in the direction of where Lastation is... was." Nepgear then turned to the said direction and aimed down her sights. She decided that because Lastation was no more, the monsters around that area might've headed towards Lowee, and that would mean double the numbers, even though she couldn't exactly estimate the total numbers.

Nepgear could already see flying monsters headed towards Lowee. She brought her sights down to check the ground units; there, the adventurers and hunters were already in position just outside the borders. The goal was to not let a single monster break through the gates but Nepgear knew that it would be impossible to achieve that.

"Heh... IF is also in that direction..." Nepgear said as she saw IF in front of the adventurers. It seemed like she was leading them, and Nepgear was glad to see that. They probably wouldn't need Nepgear's help against ground enemies, which was what Nepgear thought.

Nepgear then brought her sights towards the direction of Gamindustri Graveyard. There, Marvy blended in the adventurers. She expected that since Marvy was a shinobi, leading a lot of people wouldn't be her forte. Her best tactic would be a hit and run style. The direction towards Planeptune didn't pose much threat as much as the other two so even without the aid of IF and Marvy, the adventurers should be fine since Planeptune was always reducing the number of monsters in their territory, but Nepgear wasn't overconfident. Whatever the case, she still had to provide aid in that direction if the situation called for it.

"...Well, then. Let's get started."

**~o~O~o~**

Just outside the Lowee border towards the direction of Lastation, a lot of adventurers were gathered. They were set to defend the gates at all costs, even if it would cost them their life.

Among the adventurers, IF was standing in front of them, with her facing forward to scout the monsters using her binoculars. Of course, it didn't look very pleasant to her eyes as they were totally outnumbered, but she believed that anyone among their ranks was weak.

As soon as she got the gist of what they were up against, she put down her binoculars and faced the adventurers.

"As you guys already know, we're totally outnumbered here." IF declared. Even though that was not a good thing, none of the adventurers felt chickening out. Lowee was very important to them and they would stop at nothing from keeping it safe. "In more or less ten minutes, the monsters will be swarming in front of us, but we can't push too far because our main objective is not letting a single one of them get inside."

The crowd roared as a response.

"We have flying enemies and that would pose a very big threat, so anyone who can shoot those should focus on it." IF said. "We also have air support from afar that would help us against them so you just have to keep on doing what you have to do."

As IF was delegating tasks to everyone, someone braved up and asked something that shouldn't need to be asked. "Uh, Ms. IF? Who's the person who will help us against the flying monsters?"

IF jolted a little as she stared at the female adventurer. "That... you do not need to know her identity. As for the location of that person..." IF pointed to the tallest building in the center of the city, which the crowd followed. "That person will be sniping from up there."

From the ground where they were standing, of course, they couldn't see a figure on the tower where IF was pointing, but a little short while afterward, a large beam laser suddenly emerged from there heading towards their direction. But of course, they were not the target; the beam passed by above them and went to the direction where the monsters were.

"Looks like they're closing in." IF said as she prepared her katars. "Everyone, get ready to defend Lowee!"

**"OOOOHHHHHH!" **The adventurers roared to boost their morale as the monsters were approaching.

**~o~O~o~**

At the other border of Lowee that was facing the direction of Gamindustri Graveyard, another group of adventurers was gathered. Among them was Marvy, who was in the frontmost of the crowd that was being led by a veteran adventurer. Prior to this time, Marvy had explained the situation and Nepgear's role without telling them the identity of the CPU. As they were discussing their strategies, the lead adventurer saw the beam laser emerge from the tower in the center of the city headed towards the other border.

"That's our cue." The lead adventurer said as the beam disappeared. "Alright, you guys. Get switched on, it's time to defend our home!"

The crowd roared to boost their morale as they prepared themselves for the incoming attack. They then charged outside the gates to prevent anything from going inside, while Marvy did her job as a shinobi, disappearing into thin air and scouted for the monsters.

Marvy reappeared on one of the trees' branches, just a few meters from the adventurers. She could see the monsters marching already towards their direction and they would make contact in no time. The numbers were somehow worrying Marvy but they had no other options but to reduce them with everything they've got.

"May Goddess help us..." Marvy unconsciously said, even though Nepgear was already helping them. She just couldn't help it.

**~o~O~o~**

1 hour passed.

On top of the tall tower in the center of the city, Nepgear could be seen shooting her weapon in all directions. She kept on changing the direction of her aim to support all of Lowee's borders, but the monsters didn't seem to be reducing in numbers. It also had been an hour since the attack started, but there was still no news from Histoire about the restoration of Lowee's divine protection. From her scope, the adventurers could be seen holding their ground, but Nepgear could see that they were growing fatigued already. An hour of non-stop battle would definitely drain anyone's stamina, after all.

She was getting impatient already as the situation didn't improve whatsoever and instead became worse, so she decided to stop her attacks and called Histoire. The call was picked up in just a few seconds. "Hello? Histoire? What's taking you so long?"

_"Ah, we had a hard time directly connecting both our share reserves, so we used a pseudo-wire to connect the two." _Histoire replied.

"YOU WHAT?!" Nepgear was surprised to hear that. As to why she was surprised, "Where did you re-route the link then?! Do you know what possibilities of danger could that bring to us?!"

Nepgear heard Histoire sigh. _"I know, Nepgear. This is just temporary, but we also made the link private. Don't worry, it might be routed on a layer two traffic, but it's not the one that we're currently using. It's our backup line in case our main network goes down."_

"Just get to the point, Histoire. I don't know how long the people can hold out here." Nepgear said as she resumed her sniping. There were more flying monsters arriving on every border and she made sure each of her shots counted.

_"What I'm trying to say is, it's a backup network for the one we're currently using. We failed to directly connect both reserves because Lowee didn't have enough resources, so Planeptune shouldered everything to establish the link."_

Nepgear sighed in relief. "As long as we're not broadcasting something, then I'm okay with it."

_"Don't worry, we will deactivate the connection once we bring up Lowee's Divine Protection."_

Nepgear nodded unconsciously. "That's cool and all, but can you hurry it up? The adventurers were getting fatigued already and the numbers of the enemy don't seem like to be reducing."

There was a slight pause from Histoire which made Nepgear raise an eyebrow. _"That's... yes, we can speed the transfer of shares... but..."_

"But what? We don't have the luxury like time in our current situation."

_"You... you will definitely feel an unpleasant feeling if we do it."_

Nepgear clenched her fists as she heard that. She was sure that 'unpleasant' would be an understatement, but given Lowee's situation, she couldn't be picky now. After all, many lives were at stake it, or even Lowee itself.

And so, she made up her mind. "Do it, Histoire."

Histoire sighed in a low volume before replying. _"Okay... it will take three minutes for the stream to reach Lowee, another three minutes to bring the divine protection back up... and another three minutes return the excess shares back to Planeptune after we cut the line. Is that okay with you?"_

"Just do it, Histoire." Nepgear ordered. "I can handle myself."

_"Okay. Just hold out there for a little."_ The call then was ended by Histoire.

Nepgear turned back to her weapon's sights and aimed back at the monsters. It was just her feeling but it looked like the number of monsters increased. The adventurers were getting pushed back, especially the direction towards Planeptune.

As she was about to pull the trigger, her body suddenly felt very heavy as she almost dropped down to the ground. She unintentionally let go of her weapon as she braced herself to keep her balance.

"W-What... i-is...?!" Nepgear couldn't even muster her voice properly due to the pressure she was feeling from inside and out. She then turned around and saw the Basilicom emitting light towards the sky, and then towards Planeptune's direction. That must've been the link Histoire was talking about.

"Un...pleasant... i-is... r-r-really an under...statement...!" Nepgear could barely keep her balance. The black marks on her body were glowing as well. Her vision was gradually turning dark as if she was going to collapse, but she couldn't afford that. She still had to help defend Lowee.

Nepgear struggled to pick her weapon up again. Her body was shaking terribly and she couldn't keep a stable posture at all. Still, she tried to aim down her weapon's sights.

"...This is crap...!" Nepgear's shots were not hitting anything at all, but still, she kept on firing. The pressure on her body was getting stronger every second, and she had to endure this for a good ten minutes. "...Get yourself... together... me...!"

She then changed the direction of her aim towards IF's group. From up there, she could see the adventurers getting pushed back little by little. The same went for Marvy's group as she directed her sights on them. The battle was dragging too long and it was only taking a toll on their side. After all, fatigue is one of the worst enemies of anyone on the battlefield.

Nepgear was about to fire another shot when she heard an explosion from afar. It didn't come from where she was aiming nor where IF's group was, but towards Planeptune's direction. She quickly turned her aim towards that direction but her body experienced a very sharp pain from the inside that she almost dropped her weapon again.

"...Haah... Haah..." Her breathing was getting heavier by the second and it wasn't even five minutes since it started.

As Nepgear finally got a good look from where she was aiming, she gasped hard that it almost made her choke. She saw the adventurers retreating; most of them were injured, and the monsters broke through their defenses already.

"...Damn it...!" Nepgear cursed as she watched the events unfold through her scope. She was contemplating if she should jump down there and risk her identity getting blown, or just keep shooting from up there but let the monsters get in.

Even so, she still knew what she had to do, and that was the only logical thing for her to do. Nepgear then summoned a red flare and lit it up. She dropped it on the ground and let the smoke go up the skies before flying down towards the breached side of Lowee.

"I'm... not going to... let Lowee... be harmed... too!"

**~o~O~o~**

Back in IF's group, they were continuously repelling monsters despite them getting pushed back. There was no time to rest at all as every monster they kill, two more would appear, and this had been repeating ever since the attack began.

"Don't lose focus! Just take out as many monsters as you can!" IF commanded as she kept on slicing the monsters in their vitals for an easy kill. "Back away if you need to-"

Before she could complete what she wanted to say, one of the adventurers called her attention. "Ms. IF! Look over there!"

IF then brought her attention towards where the adventurer was pointing at. "...What the...?!" IF couldn't believe what she just saw.

The place where the adventurer was pointing at was the tower where Nepgear was, and there was red smoke rising up from there. She was no soldier, but she knew what that red smoke meant. Something must've happened to Nepgear, was what IF assumed.

Without wasting any time, IF broke through the horde of monsters and shouted at her comrades. "I'm gonna check that red smoke out. You guys hold-" Again, before she was about to complete what she wanted to say, she was interrupted by another adventurer pointing at somewhere.

"Ms. IF, look over there too!"

Irritated, IF answered, "What is it-?!" She interrupted herself as she saw what was in the direction where the adventurer was pointing at.

"What the hell...?!"

There was a red smoke coming from the border to Planeptune. IF then looked back at the tower, then to the border again. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"No, Nepgear...!" IF realized the possible scenario that could unfold. She then called the attention of the other adventurers while pointing to the second red smoke. "I'm going to that red smoke. Hold your ground here!" Without wasting a second, IF dashed towards the border with the red smoke.

There were a few kilometers of distance so it took IF a few minutes to arrive at full speed. As she did so, she was surprised by what she saw. There were several adventurers wounded who were retreating, and in their vanguard was none other than Nepgear. But the faces of the adventurers didn't look relieved at all.

"Nep-" IF was about to call her when she noticed something wrong with Nepgear. Her body was shaking madly, especially her arms. It didn't look like Nepgear was afraid; like monsters could do that to her anyway.

As IF was staring at Nepgear, the CPU then fired her weapon and a beam melted the enemies in front of her. It wasn't as strong as IF expected, but for some reason, it blew Nepgear backward and crashed on the ground.

"Nepgear!" IF didn't hesitate and immediately rushed to Nepgear's aid. She then helped the CPU up back to her feet, and it surprised her to see Nepgear's current state, especially the black marks on her face that were already glowing dark red. "What happened to you?!"

Nepgear was relieved to see IF. "IF... Histoire is... speeding up the process... of restoring the... divine protection." She said as she aimed her weapon again and fired at the monsters. This time, she didn't get blown by the recoil because IF was supporting her, but still, the monsters didn't stop from breaking inside Lowee.

"What does that have to do with you looking so drained?"

Nepgear breathed a deep one before answering IF's question. "It's... taking a heavy toll... on my share reserves... that I can actually... feel it."

IF understood what Nepgear meant by that. Actually, that was the only thing that could explain her situation. "Okay, I understand. How long will this take?"

"The divine protection... should go up any minute... now..." Nepgear's eyes widened afterward in surprise. If was confused as to why Nepgear did that, but when she brought her attention to where Nepgear was looking at, she made the same reaction.

From the border, there was a very large monster that almost as tall as the medium-sized buildings around. And it wasn't just any big ordinary monster.

"Is that... an Ancient Dragon...?" IF gasped. Though there was something different with this ancient dragon that she was seeing, since as far as she knew, Ancient Dragons didn't grow _that_ big, and the color scheme was definitely different from the one she usually knew.

"No..." Nepgear said as she broke away from IF. "That's... not an Ancient Dragon..." She said as she readied her weapon. "That's... a God of Fire."

IF was surprised to hear that. "A God of Fire, you say?!" She only heard about it in books as that being was considered a legend, but to think that that it existed all along, it really caught IF off-guard.

The God of Fire released a breath of fire from afar, incinerating everything in its path. Nepgear raised a barrier to protect herself, IF, and the other adventurers behind her, but it broke down after the creature's attack, blowing both IF and Nepgear backward.

"Haah..." Both IF and Nepgear grunted in pain. IF managed to stand up immediately but Nepgear couldn't even lift her body up. IF realized that and so she helped Nepgear back to her feet.

"T-Thanks..." Nepgear said.

IF just swung her head. "Don't mention it." IF replied before turning to the monstrous being in front of them. "How are we going to defeat this thing?"

Nepgear broke away from IF and took a step forward. She almost lost her balance but good thing she managed to use her weapon as a stand. "I... can defeat this thing... but I need everyone... else here, including you... to get away from here as far as you can..."

"What?! What can you even do in your current state?!" IF couldn't believe that Nepgear would suggest something outrageous as that. Her proposition was tantamount to Nepgear sacrificing herself, and IF of course wasn't very into the idea.

"If it bleeds... I can kill it." Nepgear said as she smirked sinisterly, which sent shivers down IF's spine. "More so if it's _a God._"

Now that completely scared IF. She had never seen Nepgear act like this before as if Nepgear's whole being was covered in malice. IF could just step back, feeling more danger from Nepgear than the current invaders. Even though Nepgear was in a pathetic state, IF could definitely feel the power emanating from her.

"I... suggest you step back more, IF. Take... the adventurers... with you..."

IF didn't hesitate and complied with Nepgear's order. She headed over the wounded adventurers and tended to them. "Let's go. We don't wanna be here when Nepgear starts."

"But... Ms. IF, she's in a miserable state than us..."

"No, Nepgear might go rampant at this moment." IF said. The adventurers just gulped before complying with IF's order and retreated back, and right after they got a few meters away from Nepgear, the atmosphere around them was suddenly filled with dread, making them stop on their tracks.

"...W-Wha-?!" IF became paralyzed all of a sudden, and so did the adventures. IF struggled to turn around to see what was going since she could feel the intense malice coming from behind, and as she managed so, to her surprise, she saw Nepgear emanating dark purple aura around her, with her weapon stabbed on the ground.

The dark purple aura then expanded and turned into a pillar that covered Nepgear's entire being and rose up to the skies. Shortly after that, the pillar disappeared, revealing Nepgear in the same state, but with a slight difference. She was now holding another sword on her left hand.

IF saw what had transpired, and was also surprised by what happened. She did recognize the sword Nepgear was holding; in fact, it was the reason why everything in this world was still intact, though already crumbling little by little due to the events that were occurring.

"The God-killing sword... Gehaburn..." IF blurted out unconsciously, which was heard by the adventurers around her.

"A what?" One of the adventurers asked. IF jolted as she heard that question and immediately covered her mouth. She then faced them with a worried look on her face, but as she was about to speak, the ground started to shake madly.

"Wha-?!" The adventurers lost their balance and fell down on the ground, except IF who managed to keep her footing. She turned back to Nepgear and saw that the aura around her was growing stronger. In an instant, Nepgear disappeared from her position and reappeared in front of the dragon, slashing its face, but her attack was blocked by the dragon's claw.

Nepgear's blade sliced the dragon's claw, which made the creature roar in pain. Nepgear blinked back down to the ground and dashed back to the dragon to deliver another attack. This time, the dragon created a barrier to block Nepgear's attack.

"...?!" Nepgear had this surprised expression as she saw her attack got repelled. She gritted her teeth and repeated the process and eventually, the barrier started to get dented.

As the attack continued, the ground's shaking grew intense. IF's group couldn't move due to the tremors but if they wouldn't get away as soon as possible, they would get caught in the battle.

"Move! Things would get ugly for us if we stay here!" IF ordered as she pulled some of the adventurers who were injured more. "Pull those who can't stand, even if you have to drag them!"

The adventurers had no choice but to stand up on their feet even if the pain was unbearable. They started to escape the vicinity without looking back. As they got a good distance away from Nepgear's battlefield, about a few kilometers away, they had a break. All of a sudden, the skies became so bright that it almost blinded them, and then it disappeared afterward. IF knew what could that mean and decided to share with the adventurers what she knew.

"It seems like the divine protection of Lowee has been restored. The monsters won't be able to coordinately march towards the city." The adventurers then sighed in relief as they heard the good news. "But the restoration being this fast must have taken a huge toll on Nepgear more than I imagined. I will go back and assist her."

"W-Wait, Ms. IF! Don't you know what that thing is?! You can't fight that thing!" One of the concerned adventurers said. It was clear to IF how worried the adventurers, but she couldn't leave Nepgear alone.

And so, IF just swung her head. "I... can hold my own." IF said. "...Besides, that girl... has a heavy burden on her shoulders and never shared them with anyone. It's the least I can do for her."

Without waiting for any replies, IF dashed back to Nepgear's location. Their location was a bit far from Nepgear's position so it'd take a short while before she could get back, but she wished that nothing would happen to Nepgear. She believed in Nepgear's strength, that's one thing, but her current condition was what worried IF.

Halfway there, IF heard a very loud scream, which made her stop and cover her ears. It also somewhat made her body heavier as if gravity was intensified. It stopped after a few moments, but IF felt like she was drained of her strength.

"What... was that...?"

Sadly her question wasn't answered.

**~o~O~o~**

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

Nepgear dropped down from the sky to deliver a downward slash towards the dragon. Its barriers were getting destroyed after Nepgear repeatedly attacked the same spot, giving way for her attack to connect, though it was taking a heavy toll on her stamina.

"Haah... Haah..." Nepgear's breath was getting heavier by the second. The divine protection just got restored, and the excess shares were coming back to her reserves. It wasn't giving her a heavy feeling but the surge of share energy was something she couldn't handle properly because of her body's condition. That's why even though her source of power was going back to her, it was backfiring instead.

"Ngh...!" Nepgear gripped on her head. She felt a very sharp pain from it which made her let go of her main weapon. Her vision was starting to fade away, but she didn't know the reason why, until she started to hear voices.

**_"Why...?!"_**

Nepgear's eyes widened as that voice spoke through her ears. Actually, no, it didn't speak through her ears but through her _mind _instead. And what was more, she completely recognized that voice which made gave chills down her spine.

**_"Why didn't you protect Lastation?!"_**

After hearing those words, Nepgear was certain. It was Noire's voice that was echoing in her mind. And even though her consciousness was awake, her vision was fading away, and she could see a blurry figure in front of her. It may be blurred, but she could recognize whose figure was that.

"No..."

Nepgear was swinging her head madly as she was feeling fear towards the blurry figure that her eyes were giving her. She knew that she was hallucinating, but still, she couldn't keep her mind from not believing the silhouette in front of her.

"No... no... no... no...!"

She was hearing the same words over and over as the blurred silhouette approached her. For a delusion, this was too realistic for Nepgear, as if it was manifesting from her mind.

While she was having an internal conflict, the dragon didn't wait for her and delivered a fire breath attack. But even with that advantage...

**"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**

Nepgear screamed at the top of her lungs, which must've been heard by the whole nation as it could be louder than the loudest sound that an object could produce. Afterward, Nepgear picked both her weapon up and instantly dashed towards the God of Fire. In just a split second, she passed by the monster, cutting both its left arm and wing, and then she landed on the ground a few meters away from it. The beast roared in pain as it got injured and attempted to flee failed as it only had one wing.

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" **Nepgear screamed again as she was gripping on her head. The black marks on her face were glowing sinisterly red; it must've been the influence of the cursed sword she was wielding but she couldn't let go of it.

Shortly after that, there were a lot of monsters approaching her position. Those monsters didn't come from the border, but from every direction aside from it. They must've been attracted by Nepgear and for whatever she did earlier, and they came from the other borders that got past through before the divine protection got restored.

Nepgear gritted her teeth as she saw the group of smaller monsters head towards her direction. The numbers were against her odds, but that didn't stop her from doing her job.

**"Don't...!"**

Nepgear prepared her weapons.

**"Get...!"**

Nepgear did a spinning slash and sliced the first wave of monsters. Their guts splattered everywhere without Nepgear giving two cares about it.

**"In my...!"**

She jumped in midair before rolling downward and smashing the next and last wave of monsters down to the ground. A small crater was made as Nepgear crushed both the monsters and the ground. Actually, that attack transformed the whole area into ruins.

**"WAY...!"**

Nepgear stomped her foot and jumped towards the God of Fire, aiming for its head, but the dragon managed to keep its head from getting detached and instead sacrificed its right arm and wing

"Tch...!" Nepgear clicked her tongue as she landed on her feet and slid on the ground. She turned back to the dragon and saw it charging its breath of fire again. Just a second after that, the attack was thrown at Nepgear, leaving her with no time to evade and so she just blocked the fire with her weapons and her quickly made barrier.

"Ngh...!" Nepgear was trying to hold out as much as she can but her barrier started to have cracks and it was cracking very fast. "Ah...!" Her barrier finally broke and it blew her backward, but she managed to stay on her toes. She turned her attention back to the dragon and saw that it was stepping back.

"...!" Nepgear saw this as a chance and dashed back towards the dragon. In just a split second, she managed to reach the monster and attempted to deliver a sideward slash, but it was blocked by another barrier.

But of course, Nepgear wouldn't let her attack go to waste.

"Why... won't you..."

Nepgear pushed her blades further. The barrier started to have cracks from the blades.

"JUST DIE!" Nepgear poured more strength on her blades and finally broke the barrier, but then she was met with another nightmare.

The God of Fire was charging her breath of fire while Nepgear was trying to break the barrier, and now it was heading towards her.

**'Ah, is this as far as I can go...?'**

Time seemed to have moved slower as Nepgear waited for her impending doom. She had no strength left to spare to block the attack, now that she was at its point-blank range. Nepgear was about to close her eyes and let the fire burn her when suddenly, three blurry silhouettes appeared before her, which surprised her.

_**"Are you just going to give up just like that?"**_

Despite the blurry image, Nepgear completely recognized that voice. It was a voice that she could never, ever forget, as she owed a lot to _her._

**_"Didn't you say that you will protect Gamindustri?"_**

**_"Didn't you say that you will do everything for our world?"_**

The voices; Nepgear's heart started to race. Her promise to _them_. The commitment she made when she took _their _lives. To protect Gamindustri. To keep Gamindustri safe. To not let any harm befall upon it. And lastly, to serve the people. Nepgear was tired of it; she really was. But alas, fate must've had different plans for her as she wouldn't be off the hook that easily.

_'Ah... I see...'_

Nepgear unconsciously smirked.

_'I just can't take the easy way out... huh?'_

Nepgear finally closed her eyes, but it wasn't because she gave up. After seeing those silhouettes, hearing those voices, giving up would be the last thing she could do.

**'If that's the case, then bring it!'**

Before the fire could hit Nepgear, she brought Gehaburn at the right side of her neck and sliced it. The God of Fire's flame then engulfed Nepgear, but after a short while, the flames dissipated, revealing Nepgear covered in a dark purple aura. She wasn't completely unscathed as several burns could be seen from her skin and processor unit.

**"Nggrrggh..."** Nepgear was gritting her teeth. Her right eye was glowing red, along with the black marks on her face. Her teeth were bleeding due to her gritting it very hard. With her actions, she was left half-conscious, that was why she couldn't speak comprehensible words. But the power she gained was definitely noticeable.

**"RAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHH!"**

Nepgear raised both of her blades and then rolled downwards, slicing the body of the dragon along the way. The monster roared in pain as Nepgear sliced down to the bottom, but her attack didn't end there. In just a flash, she dashed forward and sliced its right foot then the tail into several parts, and lastly the left foot. Blood splattered everywhere each slash, and finally, the dragon fell down on the ground, but it was pretty much still alive.

**"...Ngh..."** Nepgear just grunted as she approached the dragon. She didn't cut the dragon's head to kill it and instead, she sliced it into two, cracking the head open. Short while after that, the body of the dragon vaporized, leaving none of its traces. Nepgear was about to sigh in relief when she felt a great pain in her chest, which made her let go of her blades and clench onto it.

**"Haah... Haah..." **She was losing air to breathe. Her glowing right eye became brighter, and the purple marks on her right face were moving. She couldn't even scream from the pain she was feeling because she couldn't breathe. The dark purple aura around her suddenly went inside her chest, but after a short while, it went out and headed towards Gehaburn which she just dropped.

After all of that ordeal, Nepgear fell down onto the ground, with a bit of her consciousness left.

"..."

Her vision was gradually fading. Actually, she could hardly see anything anymore.

Other than the blurry figure of a person staring at her.

* * *

**Alright, chapter 4 is done!**

**Sorry guys again for not updating for about four months? Welp, my new work rendered me with less time to write. Even now when I'm in lockdown due to COVID-19, my right middle finger hurts. I don't wanna stress it any further so I think I'm gonna refrain activities that use my fingers other than when I'm working, until I get it checked.**

**I managed to break the 10k word count, heh. Well, just an exchange for me not updating for so long.**

**Anyway, what are your thoughts on the chapter? Drop it in the reviews!**

**Until next time, see ya guys!**


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